Burdens of Death
by ichypa
Summary: One Last God Kubera. Yama, God of Death, is wound up and stressed out from overwork. One day he snaps, and is placed on mandatory vacation. He discovers a plot to wipe out humanity, and with no other help coming, Yama becomes the sole protector of the humans he starts to treasure, and will truly feel the burdens of holding power over life and death.
1. 1 On Death and the Paperwork It Creates

**My first fanfiction! Wow, I'm really excited as I upload this. I hope you all like it!**

**This takes place loooong before the original story by Currygom, the Sura and humans have only recently cut ties. Yama, Brahma, and other characters that I feel should get more love than they do star in this fic.  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kubera  
**

Chapter 1: On Death and the Paperwork It Creates

Two armies fought above a sea of stars and planets. One side was formed from the essence of the universe, beings of fire and water, shadow and light. The other side was made up of huge beasts, snakes, insects, birds, fish, and dragons. The giant creatures easily crushed the smaller and weaker beings.

Suddenly, an enormous scorpion let out a terrible squeal, and fell down onto one of the planets below, ichor flowing out of a huge crack in its exoskeleton. The impact of the scorpion hitting the barren world smashed its crust to powder. The great creatures and elemental beings paused, watching in horrid fascination, as for the first time in the universe, life ended. The huge scorpion twitched, gurgling in the midst of its death throes, and finally went still.

As battle resumed, a darkness rose from the body, collecting to form the vague shape of a man. Another man appeared, wearing simple clothing, with messy brown hair that covered his eyes. He reached out towards the man-shape, and spoke a word. The shape collapsed inward, becoming a man with long brown hair tied back, deep green eyes, and black robes, with diagonal silver slashes across the chest. The second man looked around wildly, then asked,

"Where am I? Who are you? Who…who am I?"

"My name is Visnu." the first man said, smiling. "And you are Yama, God of Death. Welcome to existence, Yama."

***I***

Hell was an imposing place, with skies darkened by soot and ash, cliffs that rose and curved like a Yaksha's massive claws, and lakes of fire that bubbled and hissed angrily. Despite appearances, it was actually quite a nice place, so long as you stayed away from the sinners' area. The warmth created by the lava pools made it a relaxing place to work for the Gods with heavier workloads. That is, so long as you were allowed to work.

Yama flipped through the pile of forms on his desk, trying to ignore the God standing in front of him, tapping his foot impatiently. It seemed like the Sura had somehow destroyed another city. A lot of these seemed to be coming from the same area and time.

"Yama, did you here what I said?" Why couldn't Visnu have given the humans a little more longevity? Or even just made them a little sturdier? They were just so much _work_.

"Yama!" A sword of blinding light stabbed down into the paper Yama held. "Don't you ignore me!" Yama stared at the sword.

"Surya." he said. "If that sword isn't out of my desk in two seconds, I will kill you and kick you down so deep into Hell that you won't come out for a billion years."

The God of Light hastily withdrew his sword. Surya wore highly polished armor, and flawlessly styled blonde hair flowed down to his shoulders. His normally handsome face was ruined by a sulking expression.

"Sorry," he muttered, "but won't you at least _listen_ to me?"

"No." Yama snapped. He waved his hand across the paper, sealing the hole Surya had made. "I know what you're going to ask, and the answer is no, and will _always_ remain no, no matter how many times you ask. Now go away!"

"Come _on_, Yama! You just have to extend her lifespan! You haven't seen her! She's got hair like a sunrise, eyes like the noon sun sparkling on the ocean, and her _figure_–."

"I don't give a shit. This is the third time for the sixteenth priestess that you've asked. How many times will it take for you to realize that your incredibly detailed descriptions of your human lovers and their skills will not sway me?"

"Please, Yama? I beg of you, Lord of Death, Master of Lives, Deadliest of Gods; do me a favor! Look, why don't I bring you out of this hole, introduce you to some goddesses who like dark and brooding types. Maybe then you'll understand–."

"SURYA! GET OUT!" Yama roared, rising from his seat. If Surya had learned anything from his time spent pestering Yama, it was how to recognize – eventually – when not to push the death god any further. Surya flashed brightly, shooting out of Hell as a beam of light.

Yama sat down with a sigh. He wouldn't be back, at least not for this priestess. She would be almost past her prime by now, given the accelerated flow of time here.

He slammed a seal down on a form, almost tearing the page. Damn humans. When they lived, they created paperwork for Indra. When they died, they created paperwork for him. When the other Gods came to pester him about extending a human's lifespan, his paperwork backed up. When the other Gods went off to fight the Sura, humans inevitably got caught in the crossfire, _somehow_, which created even _more_ paperwork for him. He snatched for the next form, and his hand seized empty air.

Yama blinked and look to his left. A young girl with purple hair wrapped in a gray turban with round pigtails on the sides stood there, shuffling through forms and sealing them even faster than Yama could; making neat piles on the desk.

"Hello, Brahma. It's nice to see you again. Agni's not here though. As always." he finished darkly.

"Mmm. I know. I just saw Surya booking it, so I thought I'd come see how you were doing." she said. Yama sighed and turned back to his work.

"The same as always. There's too much to do, and you and Indra are the only ones who ever lend a hand."

"What about your subordinates?" Brahma asked. Another pile started.

"Hah! All they do is process the souls, which turn into _this_." He waved at the mountain of paperwork. Brahma studied him, chewing her gum.

"You need a vacation." she said at last.

"What?" Yama said.

"A vacation. I'm sure you've at least heard of it in theory. You stop working, go somewhere else with nice weather and good food, and you relax. Unwind."

"I know what a vacation is, Brahma." Yama told her grumpily.

"Good. Why don't you take one?"

"Because I don't need or want one." he snapped. "Are suggesting that I become like Agni, and neglect my duties? Or Surya, and chase after anything with two legs and a skirt? Or–?"

"Or me, and sleep all day, everyday?" Brahma said dryly. The pile reached its maximum height without falling over, and another began. Yama grimaced.

"I meant no offence. While one _would_ hope for more work ethic in the God of Creation, at least you occasionally do something productive without needing to be summoned or another God twisting your arm."

"Well, I wouldn't dare suggest you become like those two. I hear Belrin is an especially beautiful planet in the Human Realm." Brahma said.

"Are you listening to me? I said I don't need a vacation."

"Not two priestesses ago, you were able to keep a civil tone of voice with Surya. Today you were on the verge of violence. Indra, one of the few Gods you _like_, told me you almost snapped his head off a few centuries ago. You're stressed out, wound up, and so full of tension you're going to snap and hurt someone. Being the God of Death, you can hurt a lot more people than most." Yama ground his teeth in frustration, but he kept himself from snarling at Brahma. She was only trying to help, and besides, snarling at her would only prove her right.

"Brahma." he said, perfectly in control. "I am fine. I assure you, I don't need a vacation." The goddess eyed him, blowing a bubble with her gum.

"Well, all right. If you say so." The second pile reached maximum height. "I'll see you later, then. Vritra should be back in his den by now. He's nearly as good as Agni's weapon for napping." She vanished. Yama shook his head, and sent on the piles she'd sorted, which made up at least half the desk's paperwork. It irked him slightly, that she worked so little yet was more efficient at his job than he was. A vacation. When would he ever find time to take a vacation? The humans had a phrase, "you can rest when you're dead." This bit of wisdom seemed to apply to the God of Death as well. He'd never catch a break, not until the end of the Universe.


	2. 2 Deadliest of Gods

**So, second chapter is up. I'm gonna try to release them every weekend, at least, though that may not always be possible.  
**

**Enjoy!  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kubera  
**

Chapter 2: Deadliest of Gods

Yama had been born from the death of the mortal Nastika, for no matter how many times the Gods were destroyed, they did not truly die. Born from their annihilation, he was the Nastika's greatest bane. Simply the fact that they could die made them vulnerable to his powers. Those with the Revival origin attribute, like Gandharva, had some defense against him, but not much.

No Created God could hope to measure up to the brute destructive power of the Nature Gods, not even a 5-Zen Created God like Yama. But he didn't need it. So long as his opponent was alive, Yama could defeat them. He was the only God capable of facing the vastly stronger Nastika in a fair fight and win without all the luck in the entire universe. A dozen Nastika met their ends on the blade of his scythe. Armies of Rakshasa lay rotting because of him. He was named "The Deadliest of the Gods," and all but the strongest or most reckless Nastika feared to face him.

Then the Sura discovered that power over life and death didn't impress large rocks moving at high speeds. After nearly being splattered by an incoming mountain, Yama hung up his scythe before he learned what death was like on a personal level, and started taking his duties seriously. It was a good thing the human population had still been tiny back then, or he would have never been able to work his way out of the backlog.

Yama quickly came to understand how important his responsibilities were to the proper functioning of the universe, and how important it was that they be carried out properly. That wasn't much of a problem until the other Gods started asking favors. They wanted him to prolong the lives of those humans they favored. Yama stood firm and refused all of them, his residence's accelerated time thankfully resolving the issue for him more often than not. This made him few friends among the Gods, never mind how complicated accepting their requests would make things for him. And certainly never mind that _they_ never did anything for him. The only Gods that Yama was truly friendly with were Indra, who as King of the Astikas understood the metaphorical burden of responsibility and the literal burden of endless paperwork, and Brahma, who helped him with his duties occasionally.

***I***

Yama scowled at the papers in front of him. Again, there were a large number of deaths occurring in roughly the same time and place. What were those idiots doing that they couldn't use Brahma's defenses effectively? The humans would give up on them and all start worshipping the Sura if all standing on the side of the Gods got them was blown up. Not to mention, it created more work for him.

Light flashed in front of him.

Without looking up, Yama said, "Surya, I am _not_ in the mood right now. If you are still there when I look up, I swear by my Name that I will eviscerate you and stake you out for the Chaos clan to eat."

"Ah, then I'd best stop disguising myself as Surya, then." said an amused voice. Yama looked up and grinned ruefully. A man with bluish-silver hair and a blindfold across his eyes stood in front of him, grinning back.

"Sorry, Indra. Surya's got yet another human, and he still hasn't come to terms with my total lack of interest in his problems." The God of the Sky shook his head in amazement.

"I'm not sure what astounds me more: that he finds so many human women more attractive than a Goddess, or that he seems to legitimately find them at intervals great enough that you no longer want to kill him because of the last time." Another desk appeared across from Yama's, and piles of paperwork plopped down on top of it. Indra sat down and started working.

"Some of that's my fault, I'm afraid." Indra said, gesturing at Yama's piles.

"What do you mean?" Yama asked sharply, eyes narrowing. Indra flapped his hands in a consolatory gesture.

"Don't get yourself worked up. I got summoned recently, and the city whose barrier I was powering got attacked. It was a small group of Rakshasa, so I felt safe leaving the city to wipe them out. Then they lobbed a Chaos Sura at me."

"They what?" Yama asked

"I'm not kidding. They literally threw it at me. I'm still trying to figure out how they managed to get it there without it eating _them_. I was so startled it actually managed to get its teeth in me before I could destroy it. I was half eaten, so it took me a while to regenerate, and in the meantime a Nastika popped up, smashed the barrier, and leveled the city. That's why I said that it's my fault, I let them trick me, and as a result all my worshippers are dead." Indra slumped slightly at this. Yama shook his head at his friend. He had a strong sense of responsibility, which is how he got stuck as King, but Yama thought that feeling guilty over the deaths of a bunch of humans was ridiculous. Humans died; so what if they died a little sooner? What was done was done.

"Well, I forgive you, since you weren't trying to make work for me." he said. He paused. Looking back up at Indra with a frown, he asked,

"Wait. A Nastika was there? Why aren't you dead? Why would any Sura, why would a _Nastika_, ignore an injured God to attack a city?"

"I don't know." Indra said. He sounded grim. "I've wondered that myself. It was Orobus, by the way."

"The Ananta No.4? What reason could she have to pick a fight with humans?"

"Like I said, I don't know. The disadvantage of the blindfold is that I can't use Insight on non-Nastikas." The two Gods worked in silence for a time, pens scratching and seals thumping. After while, Yama paused as he signed a form.

"Hey, Indra." he said.

"Yes?" Indra said, looking up.

"What's the Human Realm like?" He could feel Indra's surprised stare through his blindfold.

"How do you not know? You've been there before."

"Yes, but that was only way back towards the beginning, when I was constantly hunting for more Sura to kill, and again during the War of Dust, and everyone was ever so slightly busy then. I didn't get in much tourism during either period." Indra looked thoughtful.

"Well," he began, "it's very beautiful. It isn't at all like the Sura or God Realms, there are many places that are lush with life. All of its native creatures are very weak and fragile, though the humans are a bit tougher than most, since they can use magic."

"I find it hard to believe that there is anything weaker or more fragile than a human." Yama said dryly. Indra chuckled.

"The Human Realm is the source of our life, Yama. The forces and existences that gave birth to the Astika and give us our power are all located there. That's why it's so beautiful, too: it's where the powers of the Gods mingle. Agni and Surya are idiots to the extreme, and you can't possibly respect them on a normal basis, but the few times I've seen a sunrise or sunset, it's taken my breath away." Yama looked at him skeptically. All he remembered about suns was that they were hot and bright. He didn't see how they could be pretty.

"Why the sudden interest? As you said, you've never even bothered to look around before."

"Brahma says I need a vacation." Yama said, rolling his eyes.

"Ah. Yes, I heard about you threatening to draw and quarter Surya." Indra said

"I didn't say that, though it is a good idea." Yama said.

"Perhaps you should take Brahma's advice, Yama." Indra said. "You could use a rest."

"Oh? And while I'm off on this vacation, who will deal with all this?' Yama spread his arms, indicating his mountain of paperwork. "You certainly won't be able to do it."

"You could ask Brahma to do it." Indra said from behind his own paper mountain. "If she thinks you ought to take one, then maybe she'll take responsibility and handle your work while you're away."

"What would I do while I'm there? Sleep until its time to come back?"

"Hang around with the humans." Indra said. "As much as I hate to agree with Surya, they can be fun to be around."  
"Oh, yes, and you would be the one to know." Indra was famous for being one of the few Gods to sire a demigod. Yama waved a hand in dismissal.

"Why would I want to hang around with humans? I of all Gods should know how transient, how temporary they are. They are grains of sand, blown away upon the wind."

"They aren't _that_ bad, Yama." Indra said. "Maybe you really do need a vacation. All this time in Hell has screwed up your sense of time. You should ask Brahma to make some time zone clocks, so you'll know how time works in the other 99% of the universe." Yama glared at him.

"My point is I'm not doing it. I have neither time nor inclination to take a vacation. Thank you for answering my questions." He went back to work and didn't speak again.


	3. 3 The Last Straw

**Chapter Three! In which Yama is as mad as hell and isn't going to take it anymore.  
**

**I feel like I should clarify something: according to my headcanon, Surya, as a Nature God, is much stronger than Yama, a Created God, in terms of actual power; but as God of Death, Yama is good against everyone. A rough analogy would be a water-type Pokemon fighting a fire-type Pokemon ten levels stronger. The higher level one has superior stats, but ineffective attacks, while the lower level one has inferior stats but all its attacks are super effective. It probably doesn't matter, but I feel like I should make it clear all the same. Also, don't expect all future chapters to be as long as this one.  
**

**Edit: Now with little indicators so you can tell where the breaks are supposed to be!  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kubera  
**

Chapter 3: The Last Straw

The comet burned across the sky. Its path inevitably brought it into collision with the peaceful Planet Dumd, killing all of its inhabitants instantly. Far away, Garuda sat up from where he'd been dozing, and looked around. He could have sworn he'd just heard someone screaming in rage.

***I***

Surya flew towards the Gates of Hell, passing over a sea to of dead souls. As he did so, he spotted a familiar face.

"Agni! Hey!" he called out. Agni jumped a little, insofar as one can jump midair, and waved. The God of Fire had long orange hair, and loose orange robes that bared his impressive upper body.

"Surya! What brings you here?"

"I came to ask Yama a favor. Are you okay? You don't look so good." Surya said.

"Oh. I, ah, just had my own run in with Yama. By favor do you mean…?"

"Yep. I found another beauty. She's even more gorgeous than the others. I brought a picture this time, so I'm sure Yama will do it. Wish me luck!" Surya continued on towards Hell. Agni grabbed his arm. Surya turned around, and Agni looked rather ashen.

"Surya, maybe you should wait until later. A planet just got blown up, so he's pretty swamped. He's in a _really_ bad mood, and I don't think that he'll appreciate –."

"Fah, you worry too much, Agni." Surya said, shaking off Agni's hand. "It's been two thousand years since I last saw him, he'll have gotten over his little spat. Once he sees this girl, maybe he'll let me loosen him up." He flew off.

"Surya! Surya, wait!" Agni called. Surya had already flow too far away. Angi ran a hand through his hair, catching fire out of sheer agitation. "Oh shit, oh shit. This is not gonna end well…"

***I***

Yama glared at the paper in thought-obliterating fury. If he had been that idiot Agni, he would have incinerated the whole pile in rage.

Mountains – literal mountains this time! – of papers had fallen out of the sky. He'd been crushed underneath them, and then work had backed up further because it had taken hours to dig his way out from beneath the billions of pages. Why couldn't the inhabitants of Dumd have just neatly disappeared, like the Sura did? What had he ever done to Visnu that he'd been given the worst job in the universe with only a bum for a partner and incompetents as assistants? Why couldn't any of the other Gods do their jobs instead of lazing around and causing problems for him? Why, if they weren't going to help him, _couldn't they leave him alone?_

"Hey Yama! How's it – oh, Agni said you were busy, but I had no idea. I'll make this quick then." Yama slowly looked up, eyes wide and staring. Surya, the steaming pile of scrambled Gandharva guts, stood there oblivious to what he was interrupting. The selfish bastard only cared about _his_ problems, _his_ desires, _his god damn priorities._

"Surya," Yama hissed, "Get out of my residence. Right. Now."

"Hey, hey, there's no reason to take that tone. Listen, I got this girl, I need you to lengthen her lifespan. I brought a picture with me, since you said descriptions weren't –." Something in Yama snapped. He _could not_ take this anymore. He _would not_ take this anymore.

Yama stood up, and took battle form. His hair fell out of its tie, and both it and his robes turned blacker than soot. All color drained from his face, becoming so pale that it nearly glowed. It was an unnatural contrast of colors, matched only by the stark difference between life and death. The only other color left on Yama was the green in his furious eyes.

"Surya, you are dead!" he roared. "I've had enough of your women, enough of your requests, enough of every aspect of your miserable existence, and today I'm going to put an end to it once and for all!" Surya took a step back, going slightly pale.

"Maybe I'll come back later. When you're less busy." he mumbled.

"Ooooh, no. You're not walking out of here, Surya. Not today. I'm going to make you pay for everything you've put me through over the last two billion years!" Yama seized his scythe out of thin air. Surya yelped and flashed, shooting off into the sky, Yama in hot pursuit.

***I***

None but Garuda could ever hope to come close to matching the God of Light's speed. But there was nothing in the universe as relentless as death.

Surya flew across half the God realm in under a second. He risked looking back as he flew. Yama was still in pursuit. Surya cursed and flew on. What was his problem? Sure, he could be irritating, he could admit that to himself, but that was nothing to _kill_ him over.

Surya let out a burst of light, searching for a place to hide. He detected someone below him. It was Chandra, sitting and cleaning his nails. Surya flew down next to him, startling the other God.

"What the hell, Surya, don't –."

"Hide me!" Surya begged him. Chandra stared at him, perplexed.

"Hide you? Why? From what?" he asked.

"It doesn't matter! Just hide me!" Surya cried desperately. Chandra looked at him for a moment more, and shrugged.

"Okay, whatever, I'll hide you. I think you're overreacting, whatever's happening can't possibly be that –." Chandra frowned, and leaned to the side to look at something behind Surya. His eyes bulged out of his head. Surya whirled around. There was Yama, closing in on him.

"Sorry, man. You're on your own." Chandra said.

"What?!" Surya said, turning back to Chandra. He was gone.

"Damn it, Chandra, I'm going to get you for this, if it takes me until the end of the universe!" Surya shrieked before going off with a flash.

Surya flew around the God Realm, Yama in constant pursuit. Surya tried to seek help from the other Gods, but they refused. None of them wanted to risk raising a homicidal Yama's ire. Agni had outright left for some obscure corner of the Human Realm.

Finally, Surya gave up running and turned to fight. He drew his sword and screamed, "Come and get me, you workaholic!" Yama swung his scythe, releasing a thin wave of black energy. Surya shot over it and charged Yama. He raised the scythe to block.

Surya shot past Yama, slashing his arm off. He turned, stopped, and shot back, slashing Yama's side open. Yama swung clumsily at where he'd been.

"How do you like me now, you gloomy bastard?!" Surya taunted. Yama didn't reply, just slashed with his scythe, sending more waves of lethal energy. Surya countered with beams of light, flashing and striking Yama's attacks, scattering them. He laughed; this was the guy he'd been running from?

Then he was forced to dodge as Yama nearly cleaved him in two while he wasn't paying attention. Yama's arm and side had regenerated.

"I'm going to end you, Surya." Yama said. Black mist burst from Yama's body. Surya gagged and flew back as the very air seemed to rot. He looked down and saw that his armor was covered with a thin layer of rust.

Surya glared at Yama. If there had been any doubt that Yama really meant to kill him, it was gone.

"Okay then," he said, "I'll come at you with everything I've got as well." Surya's body flashed a brilliant violet. Yama grimaced and covered his eyes to block out the light's intensity. Surya's ultraviolet form was his most powerful state, and even Yama wouldn't be able to kill him easily while in it.

"Let's dance, you gloomy bastard." Surya said, pointing his violet sword at Yama.

"Gladly." Yama said. The two Gods attacked.

***I***

Surya vanished. Yama anticipated his attack and was already holding his scythe above his head to block the strike that came one thousandth of a second later. Surya snarled and shoved against Yama's scythe, his light causing Yama's hands to sizzle. Yama shoved Surya's sword back, and let out black light that absorbed Suya's power. Yama's scythe turned black and released a wave of deadly energy were Surya had been.

Yama felt Surya's sword burning and cutting down his back, and howled in agony. He let out a blast of death energy from his body, not bothering to turn around. He heard Surya gasp in pain. Yama looked and saw Surya favoring his right hand, which was looking green and brown, full of clogged veins and arteries. It looked like it might fall off at any moment.

The pain was distracting Surya. Yama took the shot, swinging his scythe with the point aimed right at Surya's heart. Surya saw it coming and vanished before the blade could do more than pierce his armor and scrape the skin, but it was enough. Surya reappeared a few thousand feet up, falling towards the ground clutching his chest, as Yama's power ripped through his abdomen.

Surya slammed into a mountain, where her lay panting, fighting off Yama's power. The pain had knocked him out of his violet state, but his hand had repaired itself. Surya managed to fight down the pain, though it left him greatly weakened. He grabbed his sword and used it to prop himself up.

Surya struggled to his feet, looking back. He whimpered as Yama settled down on the mountain a few feet away. Murder was in his eyes. Surya pointed his sword and started backing away. Yama advanced.

"I have been waiting for this for a long, long, time, Surya." Yama said. "You've interrupted my work, invaded my home, and whined, complained and given me no peace in trying to get me to violate the laws I am sworn to uphold. Today, I stop tolerating you." Yama lunged at Surya. The sword of light came up to block, but Surya too slow and weak to fend him off. Surya was thrown to the ground, sword knocked from his hands. Yama stood over him, scythe raised.

"You," he whispered, "are dead." The scythe came down.

Bands of unidentifiable material popped into existence, clamping around Yama and preventing him from moving. Brahma appeared on the mountain.

She looked at Surya and said, "Go." Surya flashed and flew off with all speed he could muster, needing no further suggestions. Yama snarled and jerked futilely against Brahma's restraints.

"You, come with me." Brahma said. Yama's bonds vanished. He lunged after Surya – and stopped with a yelp when fingers clamped onto his earlobe.

"Come. With. Me." Bramha said, voice brooking no debate. She dragged a cursing Yama back to Hell.

***I***

Yama hit the rock wall with a thump. With a growl he stood back up and glared at Brahma, furious.

"What the hell gives you the right to butt in on my life?" he shouted. Brahma stared back silently.

"I thought you were supposed to be absolutely neutral. Why are you taking sides then?" he said. Brahma stared back silently.

"Isn't Visnu the one who governs the Gods? Why are you here instead of him?" he said.

"Firstly, Visnu knows that you won't listen to him, especially in this state." she answered at last. "Secondly, he knows that you will listen to me. Thirdly, you are among the few beings in the current universe that I count as my friend. That's why." Yama snarled, but he didn't put much heart in it. What she said was true. Especially that last part. He didn't have enough friends that he could really try to drive them off.

"You're always Visnu's pawn. You always do his dirty work."

"That is not the point of this conversation. The point is: you need a vacation." Yama couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Are you serious? You want to bring this up now? I've told you before, I don't –."

"Yama." Brahma said. Yama stopped talking. Brahma pointed over to where his desk sat. Yama's heart sank as he saw that the paper mountain had grown even bigger.

"In your absence, the office of death has been thrown into chaos. An absence caused, may I remind you, by your attempt to hunt down and kill one of your brethren." Brahma walked over to Yama and put a hand on his shoulder.

"I told you, you're so stressed and wound up that you were going to snap and hurt someone. Today you finally snapped. Fortunately, I was there to keep you from hurting Surya too badly. You need to take a break and de-stress."

"No I don't!" Yama cried. How dare she question his competence! "I am perfectly capable and diligent; it's that idiot's fault! Make him stop bothering me!"

"_Yama._" That one word had the weight of the entire universe packed into it, and it smacked him upside the head like a thrown brick. Brahma's eyes held none of their usual bemused apathy. They were alert, angry, and brooked no arguement. "This is not a negotiation we're having here. You are going to take a vacation, whether you like it or not. This is Visnu's command, and mine, too." Yama shrank back from the Primeval Goddess.

"Who is going to perform my duties in my absence? Only I am qualified, surely you aren't going to try and get that bum Agni to do it."

"_Yama!_" Again that tone of voice, only far more forceful. "Stop making excuses. I will take on your duties while you're away." Brahma jabbed Yama in the chest three times in quick succession. "You! Vacation! Planet Belrin! _NOW!_"


	4. 4 1000 Years Hard Vacation

**Chapter 4! Q: How do you catch food the Yama way? A: Wait for a bird to fly over you. Kill it with death so that it falls onto of you. Rot its feathers off, and bon appetit! Fun fact, I got the inspiration for this chapter's title from the movie "What Happens In Vegas," when they get sentenced to one year's hard marriage.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kubera  
**

Chapter 4: 1000 Years Hard Vacation

The sun shone down, warming the earth. The tide lapped gently against the shore. A breeze blew in from the ocean, taking the edge from the sun's heat and bringing the sharp smell of sea salt. It was a beautiful day among beautiful days on Planet Belrin, and Yama was so sick of it he wanted to retch.

It'd been a thousand years since the start of Yama's "vacation." He lay on top of a cliff that jutted from a pile of sharp rocks, far too perilous for a human to climb, and concealed his presence except from above. Yama hadn't moved for sun or storm in ten years, shifting only to sate his hunger on passing sea birds, and his body had created a groove in the rock over time.

At first, the planet's natural beauty had awed him. It was just as magnificent as Indra had said it was. The sun, the ocean, the tree and animals, it was glorious beyond words. He'd cried several times in those first few years.

But he'd gotten accustomed to it, and grew bored. He started wandering around the planet looking for things to do. He'd looked for Sura to kill, but there was nothing stronger than a second-stage Upani on this world. The humans had a strong presence here, making it too prickly for superior Suras to live comfortably. They generally left as soon as they could. The torture of boredom was made tenfold greater by the movement of time in the Human Realm: the "regular" flow of time seemed to drag on and on into infinity. A day lasted millennia.

The only thing that Yama didn't consider to pass the time was taking Indra's suggestion to mingle with the humans. He would never be that desperate. Not ever.

He hoped.

Stuck between napping and beating his head against a rock repeatedly, it had only taken a year of slamming his head on a boulder before he'd ended up sleeping his days away like that bum Agni, just as he'd feared.

"I'd send you to Hell for this if you weren't a Primeval God, Brahma." Yama grumbled. He heard a faint buzzing sound. It started getting louder. Yama sat up, looking to see what the hell it was.

A fourth-stage Asura Upani bore down upon him. It looked like a fuchsia stag beetle the size of a large town. Huge mandibles slammed down on either side of Yama's perch, smashing it to dust.

'Hahaha! Stupid human! So arrogant just because there used to be only inferior Sura on this planet!' it said.

"I agree. Humans are awfully stupid."

'Heh! I know right?! Ha! Haha! Stupid bugs!'

"Bugs so stupid they wouldn't even notice if, say, someone was sitting on their head."

'Yeah! Wouldn't know if – wait…' The Asura thrashed, slamming against the cliff, trying to crush Yama. Yama's body became more fluid, like mist, twisting and flowing across the Sura's back to avoid the rocks. Wherever his form touched, the Asura's body decayed little by little.

'You bastard, get off of me!' it screamed, flying upside down and skimming across the canopy of a nearby forest.

"Hmmm…let me think about it." Yama said. The Asura flew directly at a mountain.

"Okay, I've decided!" Yama yelped, and let go. As he did, he struck at the Sura's eyes with his power, blinding it temporarily. It slammed into the mountain, shearing the peak clean off. It buzzed furiously.

'You bastard, you're going to pay for humiliating me!' it snarled.

"Are you incapable of saying anything without shouting?" Yama asked.

'Shut up!' The Asura charged, great mandibles clamping together, preparing to crush him. Yama waited until it was close enough to catch him, and then shot upwards as the mandibles snapped shut. A blade of death energy cut the tips from its wings.

"You'll have to do better than that if you want to catch me!" he taunted. The Asura shrieked, gone mad with rage. But it just hovered it the air. Yama frowned; what was it doing? Then he felt the wind move.

Yama barely managed to avoid the Asura as it blasted past him, the wake of its wind transcendental buffeting him. The Asura spun around.

'How did you avoid my attack?!' it demanded. 'No one's ever done that before, except for the high level Sura of my clan!' It paused. 'Wait a minute!' it said in a revelatory tone. 'You're not a human at all, are you?! Humans can't fly!' Yama stared at it, and shook his head in amazement.

"You didn't realize I was a God? For Visnu's sake, just how stupid are you?" A great deal of telepathic angry spluttering followed this comment, and the Asura thrashed around in the sky, apparently too angry to even think straight. There seemed to be no upper limit on how pissed Yama could make it.

'I'm smart enough to kill you!' it screamed. The wind whipped up, and the Asura rocketed forward with incredible speed. Yama dodged, the tip of the beetle's mandible tearing off part of his right sleeve.

"This is starting to get dangerous." He muttered.

'Are you ready to die, puny God?!" the Asura cackled, turning to face Yama once more.

"Far from it." Yama said. "However, I am through toying with you. It's time to end this."

'Then allow me to put you out of your misery!' it cried, and rocketed forward. Yama raised a hand. A wave of black energy shot was released from his palm. It washed over the Asura, and where it touched, its body broke down. The great mandibles weakened and snapped off, the hard carapace turned brittle and flaked away, iridescent wings turned black. The great beetle let out an anguished shriek before crashing to the ground. It twitched once, twice; then its legs folded across its stomach and it was still.

"Well," Yama sighed, "that was at least five minutes entertainment. I must really be desperate to try and drag out a fight with a fourth-stage Upani." He stared flying off to find another resting spot, since the old one had been so rudely destroyed. Then he paused. Looking back, Yama frowned down at the Sura's corpse. Fourth stage. Not very high, but still a superior Sura, and still stronger than any Sura he had encountered on this planet in the last thousand years. Yama flew in a wide circle, observing the area. Suras of all six common tribes were gathering, moving to the east. Yama stared at the horizon. That direction led to Thanciel, the largest city on this planet.

There was a short, but intense, internal struggle.

"Dammit," Yama muttered to himself, "I really am that desperate." He headed off to the human city, and hopefully to where he could find out what was happening.


	5. 5 Undying Hate

**Sorry this is a bit late. I've been busy the last couple of days. **

**In this chapter, we meet the main antagonists. Tacua's name is based on the genus of a type of cicada, and Orobus's is based on the oroboros, the serpent eating its own tail that represents an eternal cycle.  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kubera  
**

Chapter 5: Undying Hate

"We have to move faster, Orobus." Tacua argued. The Asura Nastika sat on a large rock, arms crossed. He had bright red skin, and long black wings. A helmet covered his head from his nostrils up, and two red spheres bulged from either side of the helmet. He was bare-chested, and the sides of his ribs and stomach vibrated in and out rapidly, producing a rattling buzz.

"We don't have the forces to gain a complete victory, yet. Be patient." was the soothing reply. Orobus was a female Ananta Nastika. White hair spilled down her back, interspersed with strands that acted like prisms, scattering rainbows across her hair. Pumpkin-colored eyes studied far off Thanciel. Her pale arms were crossed in front of her, and she wore a silver tunic and skirt that fell to her knees. Her feet were shod in sandals that laced up to mid-thigh. "If we strike now, we will draw the attention of other Nastika before we have finished with the humans and are ready to deal with them. They will come here and stop us, and the Gods will be alerted by the presence of so many Nastika in the Human Realm. Ananta and the others will put my plans of hold permanently, and you and all the other Sura on this planet will be hunted down and killed by the Gods."

"Thank you for watching out for the rest of us." Tacua said dryly. He would have resented that comment from any other Nastika, but it was just stating the facts in Orobus's case. In addition to being the No.4 of the Anantas, Orobus possessed the strongest Revival attribute of any Sura. She could regenerate almost instantly and restore herself to life after being slain hundreds of times over; she was probably the closest a Sura could get to being truly immortal.

"Look, I understand the need to win with one fell swoop, I do, but you need to understand that we don't have forever." Tacua pointed to his stomach. "My Transcendental doesn't use much Vigor, but the greater the scale the more it consumes. I'm blanketing the entire planet; I can only keep using it for a limited time."

"Then just let it go for a while. Why is it my problem?" Orobus replied in a bored tone.

"I've told you, the humans are constantly attempting summonings. If I let up for even one second, Belrin is going to be swarming with Gods. Only my interference is keeping them from getting through."

"Shut up! You think I'm stupid?!" Orobus roared, whirling around to face Tacua, eyes blazing. "That's why _you're_ here! To keep them from getting any help from the Gods! Are _you_ stupid?!"

"I'm sorry, Orobus-nim." Tacua whimpered. He shrank back, trying to hide behind the rock while remaining seated on top of it.

"It's all right, Tacua. I hadn't realized that the humans _still_ hadn't stopped. Your concerns are valid." Orobus told Tacua calmly. She folded her arms and turned back to regarding the city. Tacua uncringed.

He _hated_ dealing with this bitch's mood swings. Half the time you would think that it was him she wanted to rain bloody vengeance down upon, and the other half you would wonder if she actually wanted to kill the humans.

But in order to deal with the violent mood swings, Orobus had developed formidable self control. She was disciplined, strong, bold, intelligent, and beautiful, every inch a queen. If she had chosen to be male, she would probably have become Ananta's lieutenant instead of Vatsuki or Manasvin. If she had stayed femle but hadn't married Naja, she might have become Ananta's queen.

"Can you give me an estimate on how long you can maintain the interference?" Orobus asked. Tacua chewed his lip.

"About three months. Maybe less." he said at last.

"Once Thanciel has fallen, it will take a little less than a month to destroy the rest of the cities, if all goes according to plan." Orobus mused. "Two months to gather our forces and destroy Thanciel. Difficult, but still possible." Orobus turned abruptly and walked over to Tacua. She jumped up on the rock and seized his shoulders.

"We will burn them out." she hissed. Her intense gaze bored into the back of his head. "First from Belrin, and then from all the other worlds on which they crawl through the mud. You and I, we will make it so that for every Sura born from now on, humans will be but a fairy tale. They will be a myth from a distant time, of a long extinct species." She leaned close enough that Tacua could feel her breath. Her hands gripped his shoulders painfully hard. "You will hold out as long as you have to. My family _will_ be avenged. My sons and daughters, my husband, all of them died fighting for the sake of the humans. And what do they do in repayment?! They abandon us and stand with the Gods! I will make them _pay_ for their treason!" She let go of Tacua, calm once more.

"Do not let them communicate with the outside. You are vital to our success." she said, and walked off.

Tacua rubbed his shoulders. Orobus had as many moods as her Sura form had heads, each as intense as the next. Tacua hoped that he would survive his ally long enough to see their campaign to the end.

***I***

Orobus went to the ruins of Tripura, as she often did to think. The city had been the greatest of those that worshipped the Sura. When she closed her eyes, sometimes she could see the city when the soaring towers were no longer cracked, when the wide streets thronged with Sura, in human or Sura form, and their worshippers. She could see the many Halfs, far outnumbering the pure blood humans and Quarters. She could see the massive city, sized to fit Suras in Sura form, watched over by her husband and children.

She lay down in the central chamber of what used to be the Great Temple. As the crumbling statues of the seven major Sura Kings stood watch over her, Orobus closed her eyes and thought of Naja.

Her husband hadn't been a strong Nastika, only a bit stronger than Sagara when one accounted for gap in strength gender caused. Many in their clan had accused Naja of being a male Sagara when they'd married; they'd taunted him by asking when he was going to turn female and leave her to chase after Vasuki and Ananta. But Orobus had always known him to be a good and faithful husband, and kind and loving father. He'd doted on their daughters, and even managed to get along with their sons by dragging them from her side as soon as he could under the pretext of "male bonding." He'd throw them out of their cave or send them to the Human Realm under the pretext of "training" whenever Naja had wanted to be alone with her.

He'd loved this city almost as much as he'd loved her, and as the Ananta clan's representative, he'd guarded Tripura with all he had, willing to give up his life if he had to.

Then, during the War of Dust, he had.

Orobus sat upright, lashing out in anger. Her Transcendental blew the representation of Yaksha to smithereens. Her blood seethed with rage. Her guts twisted with pain. Her heart wrenched with grief. Naja, her kind, loving, wonderful Naja, had perished defending this place. But his killer had been dealt with before she could get to him, and now all she could do was crush the faithless humans who had forgotten her husband's sacrifice and gone over to the side of the Gods.

Orobus walked out of the Temple, and looked down upon the ruins of Tripura again. They were the reason she had chosen Belrin to begin her campaign. The fall of Tripura had been a symbol of the Suras' defeat in the War of Dust. Destroying the Gods' servants here, on the world where the humans' power was greatest, on the world where they had suffered their greatest defeat, would rally many other Nastikas to her cause. Even Ananta might be swayed to back her. It would remind them that this wasn't just about war; this was about vengeance. She could not afford to fail.

"Guttatus!" she called. Her last remaining Rakshasa was instantly at her side.

"What is you command, mistress?" The green man asked.

"Gather some of our troops. Send them to attack the villages outside Thanciel. They will serve as an example, to boost moral and consolidate their loyalty to me. Then go out and oversee the recruitment of the native Sura. You have two months to gather a large enough force to sweep humanity from this world." Orobus ordered.

"As you command, mistress." Guttatus said with a bow. He slipped away. Orobus slumped once he was gone. She leapt over to the vast palace where Naja had spent his days in the Human Realm. Finding the sleeping chambers, she curled up and fell asleep trying to imagine Naja's warmth next to her.


	6. 6 Thanciel

**I got Thanciel from throwing together the Greek word for death and the French word for sky together. Surprisingly, I think it rather works as a Kubera-like name.  
**

**Yes, there is a King. It is a position that gradually faded away over time. It'll be explained more in a couple chapters, but it isn't that significant to the plot. Hermits are magicians who live outside the cities, and are mostly self-taught, like Haas.  
**

**Enjoy!  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kubera.  
**

Chapter 6: Thanciel

Yama approached the great walls of Thanciel with no little trepidation. He wasn't sure how he was going to get into the city undetected. If the Gods in the city caught him, his "vacation" would turn into living hell with all the other Gods tracking him down to ask him favors, and the slow time of the Human Realm would make that unbearable. His options were limited.

Option One: Teleport through the barrier.

Result: Any Gods powering the barrier would sense him. Immediate detection.

Option Two: Disguise himself as a human and go through the check point.

Result: Lack of a magician's license sends up flags. Immediate detection

Option Three: Make a fake magician's license.

Result: Lack of file in the system sends up even more flags. Immediate detection.

Option Four: Reveal his identity to the humans manning the checkpoint, and threaten to end their lives instantly if they let his presence slip out.

Result: Overreaction by panicked humans, chaos generated and his identity is revealed. Immediate detection.

"This is such bullshit." he muttered. "Why should I have to go through all this trouble just to go in, find out what's going on, and get out?" He glared at the city.

"Gah, this was a terrible idea anyway." he growled. He turned to leave.

There was a great huff of air, and a blonde man crashed into the ground in front of Yama. He stood up, cursing and brushing himself off. He shoved his glasses back on his nose, and froze when he saw Yama.

"Who are you?" he asked. "What are you doing here?"

"I don't know why I must explain that to you." Yama said coldly. "I don't see your name anywhere around here."

"This is my teleportation spot!" the man said, drawing himself up with indignation. "I am the AA magician Sirles Athol, master of teleportation, and _everyone_ should know that this is my Thanciel teleportation spot!" An idea sparked in Yama's mind.

"A magician, huh?" he said. "AA…that must mean you're pretty important, right?"

"Of course! I am one of the most respected personages on Belrin!" the man squawked.

"Good." Yama said, and backhanded him. The man went flying backwards and slammed into a tree. He slumped to the ground, unmoving. Yama walked over and rifled through his pockets until he found the man's license.

"Thank you, Mr. Athol." he said, and walked away. He'd didn't bother checking to see if he was still breathing; it was his job to know such things anyway.

As Yama walked towards Thanciel, his appearance changed. His hair shortened, cutting off at the shoulders, his robes turned into a black shirt and a pair of pants. He couldn't alter his appearance entirely, but Indra said that magicians lent their licenses to other humans all the time, and he would stand out less like this.

Yama strode on, humming merrily. For once things were going his way. He'd be in and out with no one the wiser.

***I***

Yama stared. He stared some more. After a bit more staring, he started gaping. He'd never seen a place more, more _populated_ in his entire existence. Even in the lower dimensions of the God Realm, things weren't this packed. It was one thing to see all those papers that came from one place, but quite another to see the jumbled, packed crowds of Thanciel.

He'd never visited a city before, and he found that this had been a wise decision. His Insight made the experience terrible. He had to keep his eyes lowered, or he'd be bombarded by the humans' thoughts and irrelevant futures.

It was so _loud_. Compared to the gentle background noise of Hell, the lively bustle of the city was deafening. The upside was that he blended right in. There was no chance that he would be caught, as long as he didn't do anything stupid.

Yama looked for a place to find out what he wanted to know. From what Indra and Brahma said in the stories they told him, the Temple would be the best place to start…but Thanciel was a city of Death. They worshipped him here. The Priest, Priest-Candidates, and Temple Magicians here might actually recognize him despite his disguise, even those in the Sky Temple. Where could he even begin?

"Hello there, stranger!" A hand clamped down on Yama's shoulder with the force of a bear trap. A thin, blue red haired man, whose eyes remained closed, smiled winningly at Yama.

"You look a little lost, my friend! Tell Tetho your problems; he can sort them out!" he said.

"I don't think so." Yama said, trying to shake the man off.

"Oh, but I can my friend! Tetho has his finger on the pulse of the city, he has things, knows things –."

"Knows things, huh?" Yama said, stopping. Tetho's face lit up.

"Yes, yes, Tetho knows things." He pulled out a card and handed it to Yama. It said "Tetho's Freelance Information, for New Immigrants and Tourists."

"Tetho knows all the things that there are to know about Thanciel, indeed about most of the cities on Belrin. For the right price." Yama studied Tetho. It was very convenient of the man to show up, and his closed eyes kept him from reading his mind with Insight, so he couldn't judge his trustworthiness. Then again, since his job was apparently selling information to people like Yama, he supposed the man had to be good at spotting potential customers.

"All right, then tell me this: I have heard that there are many Sura gathering in this area. Why are they doing this?" Tetho arched an eyebrow.

"How is it that you don't know about the war, friend?" he asked.

"The war?" Yama repeated.

"Ah! I see that you are truly afflicted by ignorance!" he said. Yama scowled at him. "Allow me to cure you!" Tetho waved his arms excitedly above his head.

"War, my friend! War comes to Belrin, to Thanciel! Word comes from all over Belrin, rumors of wilderness suddenly empty of Sura, rumors of great numbers of Sura of many clans traveling together, traveling _here_. Rumors abound of Superior Sura, fourth and fifth-stage Upani, and even a Rakshasa! Only war would bring them here! Terrible times, ominous times, these are, friend." Tetho leaned closer, whispering conspiratorially, "The number of Sura in the Thanciel region _are_ increasing. Of course, nothing else can be proven."

"Oh." Yama said. Just some Rakshasa trying to inflate its importance. How had it managed to corral Sura of different clans, though? Maybe it was using a unique Transendental, some Rakshasas had them.

"'Oh?' That's all?" Tetho asked. Yama got the feeling that he wasn't acting as awed as the man had expected.

"Well, I wanted to know what was happening. Now I know. Thank you for your help." Yama said. He produced a few chunks of gold, handed them to the man, and turned to leave. Tetho looked at Yama, then at the gold, then back at Yama.

"Wait!" Tetho said desperately, grabbing Yama's arm. "These are turbulent times. You do not know all there is to know, friend! Why, there is the matter with the Gods –."

"THERE HE IS!" someone shouted. Yama and Tetho turned to see a very dirty and battered man surrounded by a group of city guards. Yama groaned on the inside. It was the man whose license he'd borrowed.

He walked up to Yama and stabbed at him with his finger. "You think you can viciously assault a famous and important person like myself and get away with it?! I am a forgiving man, and would have overlooked the assault, but you stole my license! I will see you drawn and quartered for this!" His finger stabbed again. "My memory might be a bit blurry because of the vicious beating you gave me, but I'd never forget those eyes! I knew it was you right away because of the eyes!"

"I'll say your memories are blurry," Yama sneered. "I never savagely beat you, though I will if you touch me again, I just knocked you unconscious. Besides, I left your license at the checkpoint for you to find." Sirles hesitated, his momentum disrupted.

"Hah! So you admit to your crime!" he said, recovering his steam.

"Thank you, Athol-nim, that will be sufficient." One of the guards said. He pushed a squawking Sirles behind him, and gave Yama a once over.

"Are the charges leveled against you true? Did you attack Sirles Athol-nim and steal his license?"

"Yeah. So what? He should be less pathetic." Yama said. The guard sighed.

"Great. In that case, in the name of the King, the Sky Priest, and Death Priestess, we will have to draft you." he said

"What?" Yama said. He thought back to Indra's stories. "Don't you me arrest me?"

"Under normal circumstances, yes. But given the current hostility of the Sura, we need every able body we can get. Congratulations, sir. You are now a soldier of Thanciel." The other guards seized Yama underneath the arms. Yama almost killed them on reflex, but he held himself back. The Gods powering the barrier would detect his Transcendental immediately.

"This is an outrage!" he protested. He thought of some lie that would get him out of this. "I am magician, I just lost my license. I only borrowed his temporarily, I meant no harm!" The guards looked at him. Yama stared into his eyes.

"You're a magician?" asked the guard doing all the talking. _Is he one of those hermit types? He doesn't look much like a magician to me._ he thought.

"Yes! I'm a magician. I'm a hermit. Yes, that's right. I sit and meditate, sitting through storm and sun, considering the cycles of life and death, and how they reveal the mysteries of magic. I just came here to –." The guard held a hand up, forestalling Yama's explanation.

"I don't care. If you're a magician, then you aren't my problem. We'll take you to Death Priestess Chaya-nim. You can present your case to her." Yama's eye twitched at "Death Priestess."

"I want to see the Sky Priest. 'Death Priestess' sounds so forbidding."

"Tane-nim doesn't see visitors." the guard said. "You could always become a soldier if you still don't want to see Chaya-nim." Yama ground his teeth. The priestess might recognize him, and she would undoubtedly be the summoner of any Gods in the Temple. Still…he'd be even more likely to be caught if he caused a ruckus. He had no choice but to play along, wish for luck, and bluff like Kubera.

"All right." he sighed. "I'll meet the priestess. But if you think you can man-handle me," he shook his way free of the guards, "then you will regret it, I guarantee you." The guard gave him an appraising look, and nodded.

"We'll see your head roll for your crimes yet, scum!" Sirles interjected.

"Do you mind if I kill him before we go see the Priestess?" Yama asked. "I think she'd understand my actions."

"_Thank you_, Athol-nim. Now that we have the situation in hand, I think you should go see the King as you intended." the guard said.

"What? But I –!"

"_Good day_, Athol-nim" the guard said, dragging Yama off. A passing thought made Yama look around for Tetho, but the blue-haired man was nowhere to be found. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't seen him since he'd turned face Sirles.

Yama shrugged. The foolish man had given him some information, but he wasn't that important. He walked faster so the guards wouldn't have to try and drag him along, and he wouldn't be forced to kill them.


	7. 7 A King's Duty

**Happy end of the world, everyone! This is the first chapter in what I think of as the "support plot." It deals with characters and event outside the main storyline, that won't have an effect on the main story for most of the time, but will be important to the end of the story. As i have the story planned out, there will be two more, but It may throw in additional ones if the monotony of slogging through the plot ever becomes too much for me.  
**

**Also, don't expect a chapter next week. I'm going to be really busy because of the holidays, and probably won't have time to write. I will if I can, but don't get your hopes up.  
**

**Enjoy!  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kubera  
**

Chapter 7: A King's Duty

The Sura Realm was a desolate place. It was an incomprehensibly vast land, mostly flat with a few mountains that were the strongholds of the Sura Clans. The very air was toxic, and gravity pressed down with greater force than it did in the Human Realm. It was very much to the liking of Ananta, King of the Ananta Clan. The mightiest of Suras was a slim man with long brown hair, tan skin, and eyes the color of sandstone. He wore long pants, with a long piece of cloth tied cape-like around his waist. Another piece of cloth hung from his shoulders down his back, and furry arm guards covered his arms from wrist to elbow.

Ananta lay on the peak of the tallest mountain in his territory, watching great hunks of rock float by, defying the powerful gravity. He'd finally managed to get some peace and quiet. Ever since Sagara had broken up with Vasuki, she'd been on a heartbreaking spree, leading on one poor Nastika schmuck after another. He'd managed to stop her, at least for a while, and calmed all those involved in her latest escapade. Sagara had not helped matters by subtly trying to seduce him the entire time.

Ananta sighed. That woman wasn't built to single. Someone needed to get her into a real relationship, and soon. Otherwise all of his female Nastika's would be out for blood, and he might not be able to stop them. At least nothing was going wrong at the moment.

"Ananta-nim! Ananta-nim! Please, help! It's an emergency!"

Ananta vented his frustration on a mountain behind his resting spot, his Transcendental blowing billions of cubic tons of rock into the sky. The strike was part childish reflex, part desperate hope that his Clan would see how sick of dealing with their shit he was, and whatever the problem was would go away. But no, that was not how a king behaved. He sat up, groaning.

"What is it, Natrix?" he said to the small green Nastika cowering behind a rock. Natrix cautiously poked his head out. When he saw that Ananta wasn't going to crush him, he scurried over to his king's side.

"Ananta-nim, please, I know you would rather not be bothered, but I don't know who else I can turn to!"

"I get that, Natrix, now please, what's wrong? Have the Upani been bullying you again?"

"I'm just so anxious. When I think of what might happen, oh, I just can't –."

"The_ problem,_ Natrix?!" Ananta interrupted.

"Oh. Oh, yes! It's not the Upani, I took your lecture from last time, to stiffen my spine and remember that I am a Nastika, to heart. It's Orobus, Ananta-nim. I'm worried that she's going to get herself hurt."

"What could Orobus possibly be doing that she could get hurt?" Ananta said, waving his hand dismissively and laying back down. "She's indestructible, remember? Go back to your cave and make sure the Upani don't bother you."

"Ananta-nim, she's attacking human cities! She's breaking their barriers and slaughtering the humans inside for no reason!" Natrix pleaded. There was silence. Ananta sat up again, rubbing his face. _This is the end of my free time, it seems._

"All right, tell me exactly what's been happening."

*******I*******

Some time later, Natrix finish his story, and sat nervously waiting for his king's response. Ananta began pacing. Orobus's actions would undoubtedly put her right at the top of the Gods' hit list. The problem was many Sura felt the same way she did, even among the normally peaceful Kinnara. The War of Dust had been the bloodiest war ever fought, and the Sura had gotten the short straw when peace finally came. So many had lost so much that the Sura Kings had faced open rebellion when they had bowed the Primeval Gods and put an end to the fighting. In the case of the Ananta Clan, Orobus had only barely been first in line.

He could tell that she was trying to show that despite Brahma's protections, the Gods couldn't protect the humans forever. If she managed to build up enough credit, nothing short of beating every single member of their clans senseless would keep the clans from revolting against the Kings. Blood and death would cover the universe again, only this time it would be the Sura who paid the price when the Primeval Gods brought the hammer down.

Something had to be done.

Ananta stopped pacing and sighed. "Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Natrix. I'll go talk with Vasuki, he will go and keep her from doing anything foolish." Natrix shifted uncomfortably.

"Umm, Ananta-nim…you do remember that Vasuki left to go live with Taksaka after Sagara dumped him?" Ananta blinked. That's right, he had.

"Of all the times –! Gah!" In the mood he was in right now, Vasuki was more likely to go _help_ Orobus just to be contrary to everyone and everything.

"I'll talk to Manasvin, then."

"I tried to go to him first, Ananta-nim. He's disappeared."

"Again?!" Ananta cried. "I swear, one day he's going to disappear and not come back! Fine, I'll get Orobus –!" Ananta stopped. Orobus was the source of the problem. Due to her invincibility, Orobus was impossible for even several weaker Nastika to corral. Only a stronger Sura could take her on. If Vasuki and Manasvin were unavailable, then the only options were to send the entire clan after her…

…or go after her himself.

Ananta barely kept himself from blasting another mountain apart. He'd expected that he'd have to sit around waiting for news and stressing about what he didn't know. To actually have to go out and deal with this mess _himself_, after just solving another major problem…

"_This_ is why I'm never getting married!" he screamed at the universe at large. "All the females of this clan do is aggravate me!" He jabbed a finger at Natrix, who had hidden behind a rock again.

"I'm going out to look for Orobus. When Manasvin gets back tell him he's in charge until I return." he snarled. "Also, tell him if he leaves again to do so much as go to the bathroom, I will feed him his tail." He stormed off. As he prepared to leave for the Human Realm, Ananta turned worried eyes towards the sky.

"Damn it, Orobus." he whispered. "Please don't get yourself killed."


	8. 8 The Death Priestess

**Hey, everyone! I'm back! Man, the past couple weeks were busy. I only just managed to get this done for this weekend. Still, I had a blast doing it. With only one appearance, Chaya is already my favorite character. Writing about her and Yama is soooo much fun XD. By the way, Cheonjae means "genius" in Korean, which I found out with the help of a friend who with greater knowledge of Korean than I (or at least, greater Google Translate skillz than I). Its meant to be the opposite of Agni's alias, Babo (idiot) Kim.  
**

**As always, have fun reading!  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kubera  
**

Chapter 8: The Death Priestess

The Death Temple was a huge, imposing, many-layered structure, shaped like a dome and built out of black stone. It was haphazard and imperfect, but Indra said that was because humans had built the Temples of Thanciel before they had mastered the use of Creation magic.

The guard pushed Yama forward. "Come on, lets go." he said.

"I'm going, I'm going." Yama complained, and walked into the Temple. Unlike the outside, the interior of the building was well-made and clean cut. A vast hallway led deeper into the Temple. The guards led Yama to the end, where a man sat at a desk. He had long brown hair and wore black robes, and when he looked up he had blue eyes with half-circle-lens glasses perched on his nose.

"Yes, Captain? What business do you have at the Temple?" the man asked.

"This guy knocked out Sirles Athol-nim and stole his magician's license. He says that he is a magician, a hermit, and he just lost his license and intended to borrow Athol-nim's."

"Borrow a license?" the man repeated. The guard shrugged.

"He did actually leave it behind at the checkpoint for Athol-nim to reclaim." The man behind the desk looked at Yama. _What kind of hermit has a license?_ he thought.

_Shit, shit, shit…_ Yama thought. The man sighed and looked away.

"Well, if he claims to be a magician, then he is a Temple's problem. If only the Sky Temple wasn't so busy with its own problems…" he sighed, and hung his head. He looked back at the guard. "Thank you, Captain. You may return to your duties." The guard saluted and he and his men left. The man looked back at Yama.

"I am Shrine Magician Reaf Weithas. And you are?" he asked. Yama thought fast.

"I'm Cheonjae Tun. I'm honored to meet you, Shrine Magician." he said. Reaf gave him a flat look over the tops of his glasses. He was thinking the exact same thing as Yama: _What the hell? What kind of name is _Cheonjae Tun_?_ But he shrugged and thought _Whatever, it's the Priestess's problem, not mine_. He waved for Yama to follow him and started walking toward the stairs.

"Come with me, Mr. Cheonjae. I will turn you over to the Priestess, and then I can get back to my post." They walked up past the second floor, which looked like long hallway of suites, and up past the third floor, which looked like an entire floor of offices. It was wide and more open than the second floor, and more Priest-Candidates, Shrine Magicians, and lower ranking Temple personnel milled about, creating a gentle hum of voices. The fourth floor was just a hallway, smaller than the second, with two doors at either end. A stair case was on the far side, and Yama could feel the presence of the Barrier orb above it. Brahma's power, the half of the city's defenses designed to match with his attribute.

Reaf knocked on the door in front of them. A muffled questioning noise came in response.

"Priestess-nim, I've brought someone to see you. There is an issue he needs to discuss with you."

"Tell him to go toss himself off the city wall." a female voice said more clearly from the other side of the door. "I don't want to deal with him. I just got back from my daily argument with Kerid, so unless the universe will end if I don't talk to him, give him my official response that I don't care about his problems."

"He's standing right here, Priestess-nim. And I'm afraid that it is far worse than the universe ending. If you don't deal with him, Athol-nim will likely throw a tantrum." The woman moaned. "Come in, then." she said. Reaf opened the door. The room beyond it was richly decorated, with a jungle landscape covering the left wall, and a mountain landscape covered the right. Large windows provided plenty of natural light, as well as providing a gorgeous view of the gardens that dominated half the temple complex. The desk at which the Priestess sat was covered in a thin layer of paper, and was ornately carved, full of the elegance that people far enough ahead in their paperwork that they saw the surface of their desks put into their office furniture. Yama's desk was always something to keep the papers from getting dirty.

The priestess herself was an interesting sight. She had sea-foam green hair that fell below her shoulder blades and eyes of the same color, which glared at him, making sure he understood that he was the source of all her woes. Oddly, she wasn't wearing a dress, or even a magician's suit. She wore a black top with black arm guards that left her biceps exposed. It was an outfit that cut out any excess cloth, and she looked more like a fighter in it than a magician.

"So tell me," she said, "Who are you and how is it that you have become my personal headache?" Recognizing that he was a problem for someone just trying to get their work done, Yama decided to cooperate. Doing so would also get him out of here before she recognized him.

"My name is Cheonjae Tun. I sincerely apologize, Priestess." he said with a short bow. "I didn't intend to cause you grief. I meant no harm, as I told the guards who brought me here."

"Yes, I'm _sure_ you didn't." she said. Her tone caused Yama's desire to cooperate to spontaneously evaporate. He glared right back at her. Reaf sighed after several minutes of stubborn silence.

"He rendered Athol-nim unconscious and –."

"He did _what_?" the Priestess asked. Her lips twitched.

"He knocked him out Priestess-nim." Reaf repeated. "After which, he stole Athol-nim's magician's license." The Priestess laughed, a warm and rich sound.

"I thought there was something I liked about you, even if you were a headache." she said. Her grin faded. "Still, I'm obligated to ask, _why_ did you assault and rob Sirles?"

"I didn't mean any harm." Yama repeated. "I'd just lost my license, so I was just borrowing it. You can even ask the checkpoint personnel, I left the license there so he could get it back."

"How did you lose it?" Yama shifted uncomfortably.

"Well, I'm a hermit. I'm often meditating out in the wilds, and I put it down for a while, and when I was done meditating it was gone." The Priestess leaned back.

"So you're a hermit, one of those people who intentionally shun civilization, but possess a license?"

"Yes." Yama said.

"And you've lost said license."

"Yes."

"You realize that is probably the worst cover story ever, right?" Yama scowled, and stared at his feet.

"Yes." he growled. The Priestess smiled.

"Don't look so glum." she said. "I'm not going to do anything terrible to you, if only so I can piss off Sirles. Tane doesn't take much interest in affairs outside the Sky Temple, so I am the final authority of magician related matters in Thanciel. Sirles can't touch you unless I allow it." She paused. "You _are_ actually a magician, though, right?"

"Of course!" Yama snapped. It would be bad if she began thinking he was anything else.

"Are you any good?" she asked.

"I'm a great magician! Far better than that buffoon!" Yama cried. The Priestess smiled in an uncomfortably predatory fashion. Yama got the feeling that might not have been the best answer to give.

"Well, one magician stealing another's license is a far more serious crime than a non-magician performing the theft. Especially a skilled magician such as yourself; we can't our reputations sullied by letting it seem like we're riddled with infighting." Her eyes sparkled with absolutely unholy mirth. "I'm afraid you're going to have to _prove_ to the public that you truly regret your actions towards Sirles and your dedication to the good of all."

_Oh, GOD DAMN IT!_ Yama thought, seeing were this conversation was going. He redoubled the intensity of his glare.

"And what," he asked, pushing the words through gritted teeth, "exactly, must I do to give you your proof?"

"There are several ways, but the one best suited to this situation would be for you to give Thanciel the benefit of your talents." The Priestess said. "Join us here at the Temple, and devote yourself to the defense of Thanciel."

"Great!" Yama said, throwing his hands into the air and staring at the ceiling. "So glad I walked all the way over here so I could be drafted anyway."

"Don't be such a drama queen." The Priestess said. "We really do need your help. With a Nastika skulking around, we need every available body to help protect us, and as many of those who aren't available as we can get anyway."

Yama's gaze shot back to the Priestess. What she'd just said was _far_ more interesting that the ceiling.

"A Nastika? Here? How do you know?" he asked.

"By chance. One of our scouts was gathering information when he saw someone talking to a group of lesser Sura. He saw her change genders, just for a minute, but that's all the proof we need. It's a good thing he was our Hoti Chandra expert, or he never would have gotten out of their alive, and he died soon after." She stood up and walked over to stand in front of Yama. She wore knee-length black shorts and black boots. "Please. We need your help."

Yama mulled it over. He didn't want to stick around these idiots any longer, and every minute he spent in the city was one minute in which he could be discovered by the Gods powering the Barrier.

But he hadn't fought a Nastika since the War of Dust. _That _would be a vacation.

"Fine." he said. "But I don't want anything to do with Gods. I have my reasons."

"Oh, that is _far_ from a problem." the Priestess said. She stuck out her hand. "I'm Chaya Gerel, Priestess of Death, voice of Lord Yama. Call me Chaya. Welcome to the team, Cheonjae." Yama cautiously took her hand and shook it. She gripped it and started pulling him out the door.

"Come on! I'll give you the tour!" she said.

"Priestess-nim! You have work to do still!" Reaf shouted after them.

"You handle it! Besides, it will be good for moral for me to be seen out and about!" Chaya called back.

"What have I gotten myself into?" Yama muttered.


	9. 9 The Silence

**Sorry this is a bit late. This leads well into my next announcement: I'm going to start releasing every two weeks unless I get a surge of inspiration. Things have been so busy recently that I just can't maintain my current pace while maintaining my current quality. And it isn't going to stop. Soon I'm going to have to make decisions concerning college, and go visit them, and pick one to attend, and then there will be finals, and then a bit of vacation, then I'll need to go move to my college, etc. Sorry, but it just can't be done. Still, I'll do my best to bring you Burdens of Death in a timely manner.  
**

**This Chapter was originally supposed to pretty much just be about Chaya showing Yama all of Thanciel. Thankfully, it turned out far more interesting. As new areas of the city come into importance, I'll introduce them.  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kubera  
**

Chapter 9: The Silence

Chaya skipped out of the Temple, releasing Yama's hand as they got out the door.

"Ah!" she said, stretching. "Fresh air at last! You have no idea what its like to be cooped up doing paper work for hours!"

"I can actually." Yama said dryly. "I've had to do paperwork for a lot longer before."

"Oh. I guess that's why you became a hermit, then." Chaya said.

"I guess you could say that." Yama agreed, voice flat. Changing the subject, he said, "So. I believe we were on a tour?"

"Oh, right!" Chaya said. "Come on!" She skipped off. Yama followed with a shake of his head. It seemed like she was more excited about this that he was.

They reached the end of the path led between the Temple and a larger road. Chaya spun around and stopped.

"Here should be a good place to start." she said. She point back towards the Temple. "That's the Death Temple."

"I would never have guessed." Yama said sarcastically.

"Don't give me that, or I'll throw your butt to Sirles's mercy. Follow!" she walked onto the road.

"This is the Exit Road," she said, walking backwards to face Yama. "It is part of one big road that begins at the checkpoint, which is the part called the Entry Road, circles around the commercial strip, and back out the check point, which is why this part is called the Exit Road."

"How very imaginative." Yama said.

"Hey, don't knock it. The guys who named it had just built a _city_ after all. They had license to slack off in the naming department." Chaya said. She ran off towards the giant wall of buildings on the other side of the road.

"This is the commercial strip," she said when the reach the mass of buildings, "It's where the majority of restaurants, shops, and small businesses are located. The road winds around it, and it pretty much splits Thanciel in half." Chaya ran into the mass of buildings, moving through paths and alleys that twisted into the interior of the strip. The number of businesses was as substantial on the inside as it was on the outside. A thin strip of sunlight shone down from above, but for the most part the interior of the commercial strip was lit by electric lamps, giving it a feeling of perpetual evening. It was also very crowded.

"Well, this is very interesting." Yama said, trying to avoid bumping into people, and failing. "Can we go somewhere less –."

"Do you want ice cream, Cheonjae?" Chaya asked.

"What? Ice cream?" Yama said, taken aback.

"I guess you don't get much ice cream out in the wilderness. Why don't you just sit here," she said, and shoved him down onto a nearby bench, "and I'll go get some?"

"No! I don't want–!" She'd already vanished into the crowd. Yama ground his teeth and sat down. He swore that one day he would get this woman back for all the grief she was putting him through right now. "She acts like a child, not a leader!" he muttered to himself, disgusted.

*******I*******

Chaya walked up to the ice cream stand. The people in line bowed to her and moved aside.

"Two curry flavored ice creams, please!" she said. "One scoop, in a cone." She was served promptly, and told the servers to keep the change. She walked away, already working steadily into her cone. She turned into an alley and leaned against a wall. She wasn't waiting long before she heard someone approach.

"Why, whatever are you doing in a place such as this, my lovely Priestess?" Tetho said. He smiled and leered at her. "Why, you might get your gorgeous person dusty."

"Would you knock it off?" Chaya asked. "You _know_ I hate it when you're in character in front of me." Tetho grunted, and he straightened. His entire demeanor changed. Suddenly he was serious instead of foolish, calm and thoughtful instead of erratic and flighty.

"Sorry, Chaya." he said. "It's been a while since I dropped character; I forgot how much you dislike it."

"It's all right 'Tetho'. Now tell me, what is it that our friend Cheonjae wants here?" Chaya asked. Tetho folded his arms and leaned against the wall on his side of the alley.

"He wanted information. For some reason he wanted to know why the Sura have been gathering in this area. But he seemed really disappointed with what I'd told him. Like he was expecting something more interesting. He paid me in raw gold and was about to walk off before Athol showed up."

"Hmm." Chaya mused, licking her ice cream. "Mr. Cheonjae did seem less sullen about serving Thanciel once I'd brought up the Nastika sighting. He also said he didn't want anything to do with the Gods. Did you…?" she started to ask, but Tetho was shaking his head.

"I was just about to bring it up when Athol appeared." he said.

"Sirles, why must you make my life so difficult?" Chaya muttered to herself. "Whatever, I'll find a way to bring it up." She looked back to Tehto.

"Eventually I'm going to have to let him off the leash, and when I do I want you stuck to him like a burr until I can trust him 100%."

"Got it. You should probably get back to him now; his ice cream's starting to melt." Tetho pointed out. Chaya yelped and swore, trying to wipe away the trails of melted ice cream. She ran off, pausing only to turn and call, "Stay safe Tane!"

"_Tetho_ is always safe, dear Priestess!" He replied, already back in character.

*******I*******

Yama's anger had boiled and managed to be reduced to a steady simmer over the course of the fifteen-minute wait until that damn woman showed up again. She was grinning widely and was carrying two bread-like cones topped in an orange substance, undoubtedly this "ice cream" she'd spoken of.

"I'm back!" she said. "By the way, while I'm thinking of it, can I ask –." Yama stood up. His expression must have been pretty impressive, because Chaya backed away from him.

"What do you think you're doing?" he snapped. "Is this anyway for you to behave?"

"What?" Chaya asked, clearly blindsided by the question.

"This, this _playing around_!" Yama elaborated. "I'm not stupid, I can tell that you could have told that Shrine Magician or another subordinate to take me around the city, but you took it so you'd have an excuse to goof off! You're the Priestess, one of the leaders of this city; why aren't you taking you're responsibilities more seriously?!"

The two stared at each other in silence for a moment. Hardly anyone was staring; Yama was rather proud of himself for keeping his voice down. A small part of him was able to admit, reluctantly, that maybe Brahma had been right about this vacation thing. A thousand years ago he would have been shouting at the top of his lungs or have outright ripped Chaya's face off.

"You're probably right." Chaya admitted at last.

"No, it isn't – wait, I'm right?" Yama said. After eons of dealing with company who had egos the size of planets and infallible moral compasses that pointed directly to where they stood, he was unused to people admitting they were in the wrong.

"Yeah. I probably shouldn't be running around out here instead of back at my office, running the city, despite the moral-building my public presence provides. I'm often tempted to shove more of my duties onto Kerid, our King, but I can't do that for the same reasons I can't give in to his demands to include him more in the running of the city: the office of the King has lost too much authority and respect to effectively execute the daily decisions needed to run a city. But even so, if you take your responsibilities _too_ seriously, people will take advantage of you." Chaya said. Yama thought of Indra and winced.

"Its more than just not wanting to be a tool, though." Chaya continued. Her voice was surprisingly intense. "What kind of existence is it if you just sit behind a desk all day and work?" She stepped closer to him and grabbed his hand. Yama tried to pull away, but she maintained and iron grip. Yama noticed that she was shorter than him; he was almost a full head taller. He'd never noticed, because she gave off such a presence.

"Sometimes," she breathed, "you just have to seize life before it gets away from you, no matter the cost." Yama franticly avoided her eyes. He did _not_ want to know what was on this woman's mind.

"So, eat up!" she said, stepping away. Yama blinked, and looked down at his hand. When she'd grabbed his hand, she'd also wrapped it around the ice cream cone.

"Oh. Right. Okay." he said, master of eloquence. He heard a snigger from her direction, but when he glared at her, Chaya was the poster girl of innocence.

Yama defiantly licked the ice cream.

And immediately spat it out.

"What the hell is that poison?!" Yama cried, rubbing his tongue with his sleeve in a desperate attempt to scour his taste buds clean.

"Er. I guess curry wasn't the best flavor for first impression. Don't worry, other flavors are much better. I'll get a flavor that suits you better next time." Chaya assured him.

"You'd best pray to Yama, because he's the only one who can force that into my mouth again." Yama snapped. "Let's just go."

Laughing, Chaya pulled him along. They had gone through to the other side of the commercial strip before Yama remembered something.

"Chaya, wasn't their something you were going to ask me?" Yama asked.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah." Chaya said. "I was curious about why you didn't want anything to do with Gods."

"Rouge Transcendental nearly took my head off." Yama lied. "That's why I became a hermit."

"Didn't we establish that your back story was fake?"

"Didn't you just feed me vileness incarnate?"

"That's infantile."

"I don't care, that my story and you're just going to have to deal with it. Maybe I'll be freer with my past if you tell me why I don't have to worry about the Gods. If I'm to serve Thanciel to the best of my abilities, isn't there a slim possibility that I might have to meet the Gods powering the Barrier?"

"It's because there aren't any Gods in Thanciel." Chaya said. Yama processed this.

"_What?!_ You have a Nastika knocking at your doors and have _no_ Gods to support the Barrier?" Yama cried. Chaya slapped a hand over his mouth and clenched, holding his jaw shut so hard it hurt.

"That," she hissed, "is not something those of us who have common sense scream about for the world to hear. Mass panic is counterproductive to survival. Got it?" Yama nodded. Chaya let go of him, and he massaged his jaw.

"Are you quite certain you're a Priestess?" he asked. "Are you sure you're not actually a knight?"

"It would be wise for you to never make me prove it to you." she said. "I could be both, for your information."

"Anyway, back to the more important question, why don't you have any Gods here? To go up against – against a superior Sura, you'd need a God to maintain the Barrier." Yama said. Chaya sighed.

"It'll be easier just to show you." she said. To took a deep breath and started rattling off summoning spells.

"Ida Etu Indra, Ida Etu Surya, Ida Etu Vayu, Ida Etu Agni, Ida Etu Varuna, Ida Etu Chandra, Ida Etu Kubera, Ida Etu Yama." she said. A moment passed. Then another. Absolutely _nothing_ happened.

Yama's skin crawled. When a God was summoned, they felt that summon's pull, whether they answered the call or not. But even with Chaya standing right in front of him, Yama hadn't felt a thing. If he hadn't heard her call for him with his own ears, Yama would never have known that the summoning had taken place.

"That is…disturbing." he said.

"Understatement of the millennia. The Gods are silent, and all you can say is that it's 'disturbing'" Chaya snorted. "See why we need any magician we can beg, borrow, or steal?"

"Yeah." Yama said. There were _no_ other Gods on this planet, and none would be coming. A Nastika and no one knew how many Superior Sura were running around the planet, and all these humans were practically defenseless. They would be far too busy to notice anything out of the ordinary about him, so long as he didn't flaunt it. And none of his idiot fellow Gods would be around to bother him or steal the fun. Yama smiled. He might actually be able to thank Brahma when he went back, if things kept up like this.

"So, for now, let carry on shall we?" Yama said, and some one started shouting their names, their tone urgent.


	10. 10 The Refugees

**Not much to say about this chapter. It pretty much just a transition into the next chapter, where the action will happen. The importance of the magicians who appear will depend on whether I decide if they get eaten or not. Oh, and Sirles Athol continues his likely hopeless quest to make people realize that he was the victim in his and Yama's encounter.  
**

**Enjoy!  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kubera  
**

Chapter 10: The Refugees

"Priestess-nim! Mr. Cheonjae!" a messenger boy cried, running up to them. He stopped to catch, bracing his hand on his knees.

"What's wrong?" Chaya asked.

"Sura!" he cried. "Sura are attacking the refugees!"

"What refugees?" Yama asked.

"When we learned about the stronger Sura moving into the area, we decided to move the population of all the outlying villages of the Thanciel area into the city. It'll be a drain on our resources, but it better than leaving Sura bait lying around." Chaya said. She turned back to the kid. "Tell me exactly what's happening. No, actually, take several deep breaths, and _then_ tell me what's happening." The kid sucked in several large mouthfuls of air, and started talking rapidly.

"Temple Magician Matius was guiding the refugees to the city, but they were attacked by several Upani. They managed to escape with the help of the magicians with him, but they used up their daily usages for Hoti Vayu, so they're stuck. He's requested reinforcements; the Sura were too numerous and powerful for them to fight off, and they will probably be found soon." he finished.

"Gods," Chaya said, "this is bad. We can't afford to lose any civilians, let alone magicians."

"Good thing that buffoon can teleport, right?" Yama said.

"That's right!" Chaya said. She smiled. "Ha! For once in your miserable life, Sirles, you're going to be useful!" She turned to Yama. "And you! We might as well take this chance to see what you're made of."

"What? Me? Why me?" Yama asked.

"Well, you said you were a better magician that Sirles. Now's your chance to prove it." Chaya said. Yama took a breath to argue with her…

…and saw a sly quirk to her smile. Yama closed his mouth and narrowed his gaze. She was _testing_ him.

"Fine." he said. "I'll go. I'll prove to you how good I am. I'll bring every one of those people back without a hair on their head harmed." Chaya blinked.

"I don't know, maybe you should raise your goals a little first." she said.

"I'm _serious_." Yama snapped.

"I know, I can tell, I'm sorry. By the way, what attributes do you have?" Chaya asked.

"Triple…uh…Yama, I guess." Yama said. He wouldn't be able to pull off magic not his own well enough to maintain secrecy.

"You _guess_?" Chaya asked, raising and eyebrow. Yama kept his mouth firmly shut and looked back at her, deciding that shutting up was the better part of subtlety.

"Let me repeat the question, so you won't have to evasive, and this is important: _What_ attributes do you have?" Chaya said, enunciating each word of the question.

"Triple Yama." Yama said, without hesitation this time.

"Good. You," she said turning to the messenger, "Take Mr. Cheonjae to the Exit Road checkpoint. I'll contact the other magicians who will be going with him, and have them meet up there."

"Yes, ma'am!" the messenger said, and ran off, waving at Yama to follow.

"Off you go!" Chaya said, smacking Yama on back so hard he nearly fell over. "Don't let Sirles bully you too much, and try not to break him either."

"I make no promises." Yama said, and ran after the messenger.

*******I*******

Approximately fifteen minutes later the party of five magicians was assembled, with Athol arriving with a blast of wind from a Bhavati Vayu. He looked around at the group, arrogant smile on his face, until he saw Yama. His face froze, and changed into a look that was part astonishment and part righteous fury.

"YOU!" he cried.

"Me." Yama replied.

"What are you doing here? Why aren't you in prison?!"

"I'm here to join you in this mission; and because I got drafted instead."

"What? How could Chaya bring a brigand like you into the service of Thanciel?"

"I understand that there was a need for magician-power. Also, I got the distinct impression that she doesn't like you very much." One of the other magicians, a woman with dark purple hair, coral color eyes, and red robes covered her mouth to stifle a laugh.

"How dare you! The Priestess and I have known each other for years, I hardly think she would impart any such information to you!"

"I said I got the impression, not that she told me. And I notice that you aren't denying it." The woman and another magician, a man with dark hair and an orange coat, were clearly trying to not double over with laughter. Athol was steadily growing red. As took a breath to make his retort, the last magician stepped between him and Yama. He had bright red hair, and black robes that identified him as a Temple magician of the Death Temple.

"Okay, okay, let's just settle down everyone." he said. "We have a job to do, and fighting amongst ourselves isn't going to make it any easier. Why don't we introduce ourselves? Break the ice, and all that. I'll start." He stepped back so that they were all facing him.

"Hi. My name is Ernest Nessam. I'm a Temple Magician at the Death Temple here in Thanciel, and I am a Yama-Yama-Vayu magician. Next?"

"My name is Caile Itua." the woman said. "I am a non-denominational magician from Cerun, and my attributes are Kubera-Indra-Indra. Pleased to meet you all." she finished with a little curtsy.

"I am Rodrick, the Mighty!" the man with the orange coat declared. "I am a wandering hero, who has come to the aid of Thanciel in its time of need. I am an incredibly handsome and talented Agni-Surya-Agni magician, and so long as I am by your side, you need not fear for your lives!" Everyone stared at him for a minute. Ernest turned to Athol and Yama.

"Riiiight." he said. "Now, how about you two?" Athol stepped forward.

"I'm sure you all know who I am, but I shall introduce myself anyway. I," he said, smoothing his hair back, "am Sirles Athol, an AA, Vayu-Vayu-Vayu magician, teleportation expert, and supreme master of all things concerning wind magic –."

"Which suits a pompous windbag like you." Yama remarked. Athol glared at him while Caile bit her lip to stop herself from laughing, and Rodrick stop trying to control himself and start laughing his head off. Ernest looked at Yama disapprovingly.

"Is it really necessary to provoke your teammates like that Mr.–?"

"Cheonjae Tun. Yama-Yama-Yama magician. And I'll have you know that this buffoon was incredibly rude to me when we first met for no legitimate reason, and then he kicked up a fuss over me borrowing his license –,"

"_You assaulted me and took it off of my body while I was unconscious!"_

"— and he got me drafted into defending your little city. Which is why I'm here." All the other magicians were staring at him.

"Oh," he clarified, "but don't worry, I'll give you 100%, be a team player, and all that; even though I'm here against my will. I unfortunately promised Chaya I would get the refugees back here safe, so now I gotta go do it."

"You dare address the Priestess so informally?" Athol spluttered.

"Take it up with her, she told me to call her that. Oh, you don't get to call her that? Yet another sign that she hates your guts."

"I am going to teleport you over the mouth of an active volcano!" Athol screamed.

"Just try it! I'll rot your eyes out; we'll see how far you can teleport then!" Yama shot back, getting in Athol's face. They were about to start strangling each other when Ernest seized their collars and dragged them apart.

"_If_ you can act like adults for five minutes, perhaps we should get going. Those people could come under attack at any time." he said. Athol and Yama ended hostilities with mutual I'll-get-you-later glares.

"Everyone grab on." Athol said. Once all the other magicians had gotten a grip on him, Athol glanced at the city wall. There was a surging of wind, a twisting of space, and suddenly they were on top of the wall, which Yama nearly stumbled and fell off of.

_Well, that was a thing,_ Yama thought. He'd never traveled using another God's power before. It was…discomforting. Yama's jurisdiction was death; that was a part of who he was. Entering another God's domain was unnatural. He hoped he could convince these people he was good at teleporting really, really, quickly.

"Okay, here are the coordinates," Ernest said, holding up a piece of paper. "Everyone take a good look so if something happens on the way there, we can meet up."

They all crowded around and memorized it. Athol held out his arms, and called,

"All aboard!" They all grabbed on, and Athol shot sly grin at Yama before sighting on their first transport point. "Don't fall off." he said.

The surging, twisting, wind came again, and Yama closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. The wind faded, and he opened his eyes…to find that he was miles away from were he was supposed to be. In addition, all of the other magicians were missing.

It took Yama only a few moments to jump to the proper conclusion.

"THAT DULL-WITTED, NARSSISSISTIC, SELF-IMPORTANT SON OF A BITCH!" Yama screamed, startling birds into the air for miles around. The bastard had deliberately sent him to an incorrect location, separately from the other magicians. If Yama hadn't been so thoroughly pissed off at Athol, he might have felt some grudging respect for the human for pulling off such a difficult feat.

He snarled, brain seething with rage and horrible things to do to Sirles Athol, but as he looked in the direction of his true destination, his snarl turned into a nasty grin. Here was an opportunity to show that buffoon who's boss, and display sufficient teleporting ability so that he would have to experience Vayu's power again. If Athol wasn't such an annoying idiot, Yama might have thanked him for this golden opportunity.

Yama laughed, and dissolved in black mist, his essence speeding across the land to the coordinates Ernest had shown him. When he sensed the presence of human life, he discretely reincorporated nearby, but out of sight. Then he walked into sight of the encampment.

As soon as he was spotted, the group of humans swarmed him and started asking questions.

"Are you one of the magicians the Priestess sent?

"Can you get us out of here?"

"Where are the others? Weren't a lot supposed to come?" As if to answer this last one, Athol and the others chose that moment to appear. Athol threw out his arms and started strutting like a peacock.

"My dear people! Do not fear, for I, Sirles Athol, and my brave associates are here to ferry you the rest of the way to safety! Hopefully the last member of our group will arrive soon, and we can –." Athol spotted Yama and did a double take. Yama waved.

"Hi." he called cheerfully. Athol took a breath to make a respond, only to have the wind knocked out of him by Caile's timely placed elbow. The group made their way over to him, wheezing Athol in tow.

"Mr. Cheonjae, how did you get here so fast?" Ernest marveled. "Even Athol-nim wasn't able to bring us here en route as fast as you got here from miles off course."

"I keep saying it: I'm a far better magician than that buffoon." Yama said. Athol managed to get a hold of himself enough to glare at Yama and stagger upright. Anything he might have said was lost to history when loud crashing noises began to echo from the forest around them. Frightened whispers and a few screams began to emanate from the mass of humanity. The blood drained from Ernest's face, and he whirled around to face Athol.

"Get these people out of here! Now!" he yelled.


	11. 11 Skirmish

**Super awesome battle time! I hope you like my fights, I'm open to suggestions if there's anything anyone thinks I could do better. Feedback is the best tool for improving as an author.  
**

**Note: This chapter could possibly be subject to severe revisions, pending on how much Currygom intends to screw with me by only partially revealing the mechanics of Death magic. It's driving me insane.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kubera**

Chapter 11: Skirmish

The forest exploded, and the ugliest Ananta Upani Yama had ever seen emerged with a roar, flinging trees into the air. Following close behind it was a falcon-like Garuda, attacking from above, and a thickly armored Kinnara rhinoceros charging from the forest opposite of the Ananta. The humans added to the chaos by immediately panicking and running around like a kick anthill.

Caile was the first to act.

"Hoti Indra, Hoti Indra, Hoti Indra, Hoti Indra, Hoti Indra, Hoti Indra!" she cried out, casting each spell in rapid succession. A bolt of lightning hit each of the three Suras's eyes, blinding them and stalling them for the moment. But Yama could hear more moving through the forest. A _lot_ more.

"We're surrounded!" he cried. "We need to keep them away from the refugees!"

"On it!" Rodrick said. He clambered up on top of a nearby outcropping and shouted, "Hoti Suya!" A wave of light burst from his head, sweeping across the newly blooded battlefield. He cast the spell twice more, then called out, "Hoti Agni!" Balls of fire fell from the sky, striking certain parts of the forest, each blow eliciting an agonized howl.

"Cheonjae!" Ernest yelled, "Help Caile take down the ones that make it out of the forest! Athol, you're with me, let's get these people away from here; before they're killed by the Sura or each other!" The two Wind magicians ran off, grabbing random bunches of people and teleporting off with them. Yama turned and pointed at the Garuda, which was regenerating. What was the spell? Right.

"Hoti Yama!" Yama declared. He managed to conform his Transcendental pretty well to the form the spell took. A veil of black mist twisted around the Sura, and with and agonized shriek the Garuda dropped death, life ripped from it. Yama killed the Kinnara and turned to take care of the Ananta, but it had already recovered. With a roar, it chomped down on Caile, swallowing her whole. Yama cursed and prepared to strike it down, but its head exploded with a burst of wild lightning. Caile stood unharmed, wrapped head to toe in the golden light of Hoti Kubera, with the last traces of the Bhavati Indra she had used to kill the Sura flickering around her. The Ananta thrashed for a moment before flopping to the ground. More Sura poured out of the forest, mostly Mara led by more Upanis, some of which were recovering from burns. Caile dived right into them, more Bhavati Indras blasting their ranks apart.

"Rodrick! I don't care if you have to set the whole damn planet on fire, keep them in the forest and away from us and the refugees! Hoti Yama! Hoti Yama! Hoti Yama!" Yama shouted, taking down more Garudas and flying Asuras coming down from above. He managed to hit them before they were directly over the clearing, causing them to fall on top of their comrades below.

"Teach your grandmother to grow old!" Rodrick shouted back, and light flashed across the battlefield again, followed by new waves of falling fireballs.

Yama couldn't have replicated Kubera's magic if he'd wanted to, so he just shouted the spell, hoping no one would notice the lack of golden glow in the heat of battle.

"Bhavati Yama!" he shouted next. He distinctly remembered how this spell was supposed to work; the time he'd seen the Death Priest of Thanciel use it during the War of Dust was one of his clearest memories of his past times in the Human Realm.

Black mist leaked from his body, shrouding him in a cloak of pure death. Though watered down, using this Transcendental brought back fond memories of kicking the crap out of Surya. Yama leapt at the nearest pack of Sura, landing of the head of a frog-like Gandharva. The shroud flowed across the group of Sura, and wherever it touched, things died. Flesh rotting, fur fell out, chitin cracked, organs putrefied, until the entire pack simply crumpled to the ground, dead. Yama leapt towards the next group of Sura.

A Yaksha Mara tried to eat him, but Yama's magic let him melt right through the back of the lion's mouth. An Asura that seemed more on the ball than the rest, a giant centipede with eight red compound eyes that wrapped around its head, attack with Transcendentals, firing lasers from its eyes. Yama dodged behind another Sura, and darted beneath it while the creature took the brunt of the Transcendentals. He leapt on top of another Sura, and used it as a springboard to launch himself at the centipede. His hands punched holes in the creature's uppermost eyes, and it screamed as his magic spread through its body. But Yama could see the Sura in the rest of the clearing advancing towards the refugees, so he yelled, "Hoti Yama!" and ended the wretched thing's life.

Yama leapt around the clearing, leaving piles of dead Sura in his wake. He circled the whole perimeter, narrowly missing Caile when he passed where she was fighting. She swore at his a lot more coarsely than he would have expected from someone who seemed as refined as she did.

"Hey! Brigand! Come here!" Yama heard. He looked and saw Athol waving at him over by the center of the clearing, were the Refugees had finally stopped running around and were huddling together. Yama leapt over to him, dismissing his Transcendental, firmly holding in his desire to kill the fool.

"What do you want, windbag?" he asked. Athol snarled at him, but didn't rise to the bait. He pulled a long blue rod with a circle on the end off his back.

"See this? This is a god-level item, made by God Vayu, known as –."

"The Staff of Mass Transport." Yama finished. Athol blinked at him.

"Yes, that's correct. As it seems you know, I can use it to drastically increase the area in which I can transport people, beyond just those I'm touching. Ernest has run out of daily uses of Hoti Vayu, and is helping hold off the Sura," Yama glanced to the opposite side of the clearing, where Suras were keeling over as soon as they left the forest, "but since you seem to be the master of Death magic here, I'll need you to guard me and the refugees as I activate the Staff. If you can do that, I think I can get us all out of here in one transport."

"Good," Yama said. "Lets do it. The sooner we're out of here, the better." Athol nodded, and turned to walk into the group of refugees. He hesitated.

"You know, you're the only person I've met who hasn't asked about the weird name." he said.

That was because Yama knew about the Staff's origins: Vayu had been playing _waaaaaay_ too many RPGs around the time he'd created the Staff. Yama thought it would be best for all involved if he didn't bring this up, though, so he only said, "I think there are more pressing concerns than why Gods name their items what they do." Athol nodded in agreement, and ran into the center of the refugee group. Soon Yama could hear him chanting. The activation spell was yet another legacy of Vayu's RPG phase. He didn't know why the humans didn't just alter it so they could use it more efficiently.

Yama watch the edges of the forest. The entire thing was ablaze from Rodrick's magic. Over the roar of the flames, Yama could here the cries of Sura, full of rage and pain. Likely the combination of pain, confusion, and disorientation caused by the fire had broken down the different clans' temporary alliance, and natural enemies were turning on each other.

Athol continued his chant. A few Garuda and Asura came down from above, but blinded by the smoke, they were easy prey for Yama. Far few Sura were attacking. Roderick had slumped down on his rock, breathing hard from the exhaustion of using so much Vigor so quickly. Caile and Ernest were pulling back to the main group.

Everything got silent. There was no sound except for the flames. Yama's skin crawled. He could definitely still feel Sura life forces out there. Then the sounds started again. Wailing. Roaring. Shrieking. They built and combined, forming a wall of sound that surrounded them on all sides. Yama felt the Sura surge forward, in a massive, unified charge.

"They're coming!" Yama yelled in warning, just as the Sura exploded from the forest on all sides, and fell like rain from above. Caile and Ernest were swallowed beneath the tide of muscle and rage, and there was no way Rodrick could scramble to safety in time. They would be crushed, and nothing could stop that many Sura at once.

Except, maybe, a God.

Yama hesitated. If he acted, he not only risked revealing what he was to the humans, but if any of the Sura got away, the Nastika that was supposedly out there might figure out who he was too.

_I'll bring every one of those people back without a hair on their head harmed._ His promise to Chaya echoed in his head. Yama squared his shoulders. He had given his word; he had a responsibility to these people now. And Yama never, ever, shirked in his responsibilities.

Yama raised his hand, palm to the sky. Black power swirled around him, gathering and forming a sphere in his palm. Yama breathed deep; savoring the feeling. When he'd killed those Sura, he'd hadn't felt like this. When He'd toyed with that Upani, he hadn't felt like this. Not even when he'd battled Surya had he felt like this. Not since the War of Dust had he felt this way, full of the power that was his birthright and ready to unleash it.

Since he'd felt like more than a divine paper pusher.

Since he'd felt like Death incarnate.

Yama flicked his wrist, and shouted "Hoti Yama!" just in case that helped his disguise in any way. The sphere exploded, releasing a blast of lethal power in all directions. It washed over the Sura charging from the forest and swooping down from above, and every cell in their bodies died instantly, and the raging assault was instantly turned into a harmless cloud of dust.

Rodrick stared around at the dust that had just moment ago been trying to kill him, and looked at Yama.

"Great Gods." He whispered. Then Athol's chant, which he had admirably kept up despite the chaos, was complete, and a soft blue glow and a gentle breeze came from the Staff of Mass Transport. Then the sensation of Vayu's magic, multiplied by ten thousand, came, and suddenly everyone was somewhere up in the mountains instead of in a clearing surrounded by Sura dust.

Yama's first act was to fall to the ground and start wheezing pathetically. He was _very_ glad that he could blame this on the magic he had used.

"Magician-nim, are you all right?" Several concerned people asked, reaching out to help him.

"I'm fine!" Yama snapped. He kicked at them weakly. "Don't touch me! I'm fine!" He managed to prove it by staggering up right.

"Hey windbag!" Yama called, shoving his way towards Athol and Rodrick. "Did you bring Calie and Ernest with us? I didn't see if they survived those Sura."

"Anything that was in that clearing and alive after that parlor trick of yours is here with us now." Athol said with sniff.

"Here I am!" Caile called. She seemed completely uninjured, though her clothes were another story. They were torn to ribbons, though she seemed to have gathered and wrapped them around enough that they covered the essential bits. They were drenched in blood, so much that it stood out on the originally red cloth. Green swirls of light surrounded her.

"I-I don't think Ernest made it though." she said. "I haven't seen him so far, and I only survived because I activated my Kubera-Visnu fusion magic in time. I don't think Ernest was ever really good at those spells." There was a moment of silence between all four magicians.

"Who's in charge then?" Rodrick said.

"I should be, for now." Athol said.

"Why you?" Yama snapped.

"Because I doubt that you have an ounce of Vigor between the three of you, and I do." Athol snapped. "Unless you actually have energy to spare after turning an army of Sura into ferocious dirt piles?" Yama hesitated. He decided not to push his disguise any further; he would have enough explaining to do as it was.

"Right. You're in charge." he said. "What do we do now, boss?"

"Okay. First, once I've rested a bit, I'll go back down and look for Ernest's body…"


	12. 12 Oath Fulfilled

**In which the plot doesn't advance that much, but we all have fun anyway.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kubera**

Chapter 12: Oath Fulfilled

Yama filled the bucket with water from a clear stream. He checked to make sure there was nothing disgusting in it before walking back to camp. He walked over to where Athol, Caile, and Rodrick were snoring away the morning.

"Up and at 'em, you louts. This is your last warning." he said in a loud and clear voice. There was no response. Yama shrugged.

"Suit yourselves." he said, and tossed the water over them. They came awake quite abruptly, in varying degrees of shock and hostility. Yama felt certain that only Rodrick's violent flailing kept Caile from trying to rend him limb from limb.

"Brigand! You dare attack me for a second time?!" Athol spluttered, staggering to his feet.

"Shut up, O glorious leader, and let's get this show on the road. I'm not bringing all these people back to Thanciel by myself." Yama said. He tossed the Staff of Mass Transport to the magician and walked off.

"Someday I'll make you pay for everything you've done to me, Brigand!" Athol screeched, fumbling for a grip on the Staff. Yama paused. He faced Athol and grinned maliciously.

"Believe me, windbag," he assured Athol, "nothing would please me more than to see you try." He continued walking, kicking awake the refugees that hadn't already been woken by the magicians' squalling.

About ten minutes later, everyone was up and ready, and Athol took up the Staff. Yama broke out into a cold sweat from the memories of the last time he'd been swept up in its magic.

"Windbag! Where are you going to put this lot down?" he asked Athol.

"I was thinking of just in front of the checkpoint. Why?"

"Well, there might be people already there who might not like suddenly merging with other people. I'll go ahead and clear the area." Yama said, and vanished before the man could argue with him. He zipped over to the checkpoint and looked around. Fortunately, there weren't that many people, and were easily shooed off.

"You know, you could have called ahead. You didn't need to come all the way here and clear everyone out yourself." Yama jumped and whirled to find Chaya leaning on the wall of the city.

"Don't you need to be _inside_ the city to maintain the Barrier?" Yama asked accusingly. Chaya flapped a hand at him.

"Tane's managed to pull himself away from his other duties long enough to cover for me. Don't be such a stiff." She causally, but obviously, observed the area in front of them.

"You know, you promised to bring back my refugees without a hair harmed. Yet, not only are they not here with you, but you seemed to have misplaced my magicians as well. This is because…?" she trailed off, raising an eyebrow.

"They'll be here soon." Yama said. "The windbag is using the Staff of Mass Transport – ."

"Ah. Say no more. I hope they get here sometime within the next week." Chaya said. At that, an enormous roar ripped through the air, and a massive gust blasted from in front of them, clearing to reveal the magicians and refugees.

"See? All there, Chaya-nim." Yama said.

"Excellent work!" Chaya said, hugging him around the shoulders. "Come on, let go check them out." She dragged Yama over to the refugees.

Once they caught sight of her, all the refugees began cheering. Some of them were crying, and they hugged Chaya, the other magicians whom Yama spotted, and most uncomfortably, him.

"Stop it – let _go_ – I mean it – get off of me – OW!" Yama began fighting a toddler who had crawled up his back for possession of his hair, while Chaya, uncaring about the dignity of her office, laughed until she couldn't breathe. Yama finally gained the upper hand and pulled the child off his head, sorely tempted to send the little demon the way of the Sura.

"Keep control of your child." he snarled as he shoved the toddler into the arms of his mother. He began stalking back to the city before anything else could happen.

"Oh, no you don't!" Chaya cried, and tackled him, pinning him to the ground with one arm twisted behind his back. "You're not going to escape _that_ easily."

"Get off of me, you crazy bitch!" Yama yelled, flailing with his free arm. He really was going to dust _this_ human!

"You were drafted because we needed you to show that you were willing to fight for Thanciel, and so that you could show your solidarity and camaraderie with your fellow magicians." Chaya explained in sugary sweet tones. "That means more than just fighting. It means PR."

"WHAT?!" Yama shrieked. "That's bullshit! You said that you needed me for mmphmrmmphmm!" Chaya had shifted her position on top of Yama, allowing her to place her knee directly on top of Yama's head, and kneel it directly into the dirt.

"What did we discuss before, about the screaming of panic inducing information in public areas?" Chaya asked. She lifted her knee off of Yama's head. He gasped and spat out a wad of grass.

"That I shouldn't do it, because mass panic is counter-productive to survival." he replied sullenly.

"_Very_ good. Now get up, Gloomy. I need you and Athol to be seen looking friendly." she said, rolling off of him. She offered him a hand. He took it with some grumbling. Chaya pulled him over to the other magicians.

She pulled up short as she saw Ernest's body, wrapped in a cleanish blanket, for the first time.

"I'm sorry I couldn't save him as well," Yama said softly, "but I could sense that his time was close anyway."

"Yes." Chaya said. "I could too. I would have sent someone else, but there wasn't anyone –." She broke off, shaking her head. She knelt down beside the body. "If it wasn't this, it would have been something else. I hope he at least died quickly."

"Yes. He died almost instantly." Yama said.

"You can't possibly know that, but thanks for saying it anyway." Chaya said. She touched the area where Ernest's hand would have been briefly, and stood up. "Where are the other magicians, the ones that were already with the refugees?" she asked.

"The refugees said they went into the forest to scout the area, but when I used Hoti Surya, nothing came up but Sura in there. They were probably eaten in the initial rush." Rodrick reported.

"Damn. That's not good." Chaya said. She rubbed her forehead. "We can't afford to be low on man power at a time like this."

"Cheer up, Chaya-nim!" Caile reassured her. "We still have Cheonjae, and he's just as good, if not better, than all the magicians we've lost put together!"

"Really?" Chaya asked, casting a glance at Yama.

"As much as I hate to compliment him about anything, the brigand has unparalleled destructive capabilities." Athol said. "He was able to destroy every single Sura charging us in a single attack. Which begs the question, why didn't he do it earlier?"

"You're asking why I didn't use a magic that drained all my vigor when _all_ the Sura in the surrounding area _weren't_ attacking us, allowing those still alive to walk over and eat us once I was down for the count?" Yama countered. Athol sneered at him, but said nothing.

"I put them on a team in hopes that they would get along better." Chaya muttered.

"Believe me, Chaya-nim, it worked. They're actually being quite civil." Caile whispered. Chaya sighed.

"Shake hands you two." she ordered. Yama and Athol opened their mouths to protest.

"Save it." Chaya cut in. "You two are the heros of the day: Cheonjae for killing mass quantities of Sura, and Sirles for getting everyone home in one piece. The people need to see that their most able protectors are standing united. Now do your duty and _pretend_ to like each other for five minutes." Yama and Athol glared at each other. Yama forced a smile on his face and stuck out his hand. Athol did the same. For the next hour, the four magicians that had gone out to rescue were fawned over, while Chaya and other Temple Magicians that had started to filter out of the city check the refugee's identifications and examined the Halfs, to ensure that no heretics or Nastika snuck inside the city.

"Good work, team!" Chaya said when they finally finished, drawing all the magicians into a group hug that almost strangled Rodrick and Yama, who were on the outer layer of the hug. "Now come on! Let's get these folks into the city." Chaya commandeered two of the refugees to carry Ernest, and the five magicians began herding the humans through the checkpoint and behind Thanciel's walls.

While they headed into the city, Yama found Chaya walking next to him again.

"Thank you, Cheonjae." Chaya said. "You kept both your promises: you brought everyone home safely, and you have proved that you are, in fact, a better magician than Athol. At least when it comes to killing things. I'm pleasantly surprised that you've turned out to be so dependable, even though you're a stranger to Thanciel. Not to mention we kind of coerced you into helping us." Yama waved away her compliments.

"I made a promise. And anyway, when I set out to do something, I damn well do it right. While I'm here, your city will be safe, so don't worry." Chaya studied him for a moment. Then she smiled.

"Thank you, Cheonjae. That's a weight off my shoulders." She stood up on her tiptoes and kissed him in the cheek. Yama started spluttering.

"Wha –? What the hell are you doing?" he cried. Chaya giggled and ran off.

"I you react like that, you're only going to make it worse. You'll only encourage her." Caile muttered at him as she past by him.

"Lucky bastard." Rodrick muttered.

"Brigand. Stay away from someone as exalted as the priestess. She shouldn't be corrupted by someone like you." Athol grumbled.

"What the hell are you guys going about – DON'T IGNORE ME!"


	13. 13 What Is Owed

**Hey guys, sorry this is a day late. I've had a lot of stuff going on.**

**I forgot to mention the last time Orobus and Tacua showed up, Tripura is an actual city populated by the asura in Hindu mythology. It was indeed made by Brahma, and could only be destroyed by Shiva.**

**While I'm still going to try, I just don't think I'll be able to make my antagonists as interesting as Currygom's. I just don't have enough screen time factored in for them :( It's a shame, because I really like Orobus's character.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kubera**

Chapter 13: What Is Owed

"How go the preparations?" Tacua asked, landing next to Orobus.

"Well, considering. Response has been good, though we shall have to see how many really join us." Orobus replied. She sat kicking her legs on the edge of Tripura's eastern wall.

"Well, hurry it up. My ribs are starting to get sore." Tacua complained.

"When you have brought together an alliance of six different tribes of Sura that normally hate and eat each other, and united then to battle for a single cause, all while going around their respective kings' backs, then do tell me your secret for doing it more efficiently." Orobus retorted.

"Meh. You don't have to start showing emotion for my sake." Tacua said, sitting down on a crenellation next to her. Orobus stared up at him.

"I am always showing my emotions, Tacua. I just don't let them run rampant. I don't think you would like it very much if I did." Tacua shuddered under her gaze.

"My apologies. I meant no offense." he said.

"Do learn to control yourself. It is unbecoming of a Nastika to go around with a foot in his mouth at all times." Orobus said, looking away. For a while there was no sound except for Tacua's buzzing.

"Was there something else you needed, Tacua? I doubt you've just come to keep me company." Orobus asked.

"Oh, yes. One of the cities on the far side of the planet is having their entire population attempt summoning at the same time. It's getting difficult to block them, and I'm only 99% confident that I can keep them from getting through. The next time you send out our troops, please target them, so they'll have to concentrate on other things."

"Very well. I will see it done." Orobus said.

"How did that raid on all those villages go, by the way?" Tacua asked.

"I haven't received a report yet, but I should be hearing something soon." Orobus replied. There was a crashing noise from the surrounding forest. Tacua and Orobus looked to see an Ananta Upani, still bearing partial burns crawling towards them.

"What happened? How did you get so badly damaged?" Orobus asked. The serpent crawled up to the wall and bowed before the two Nastikas.

'O-Orobus-nim…I must… report our defeat.' he said.

"_HOW?!_" Orobus screeched, standing up. The stones of Tripura began to shiver. The Sura cowered before the Nastika's wrath.

'There…there was a magician. He was so strong…I was at the back of the charge when he struck, that's the only reason I survived. He destroyed most of our forces all by himself. And that last attack…' The Upani drew itself up slightly, and looked directly at Orobus. 'Orobus-nim, he was so powerful, more powerful than any human possibly could be. I…I think he must have been a God.'

"A God? But how? Orobus, this is –." Tacua began.

"Did the humans break through your interference field?" Orobus interrupted.

"Well, no, but if somehow –."

"Then he must be wrong." Orobus said, cutting him off again. She turned back to the Upani. "Meaning you fled like a coward, instead of killing the magician that slew so many of your fellow Sura when he would have been at his weakest."

'Orobus-nim, I–!' the Sura began, shrinking back again.

"How _dare_ you drag your miserable carcass before the walls of Tripura! Your very _existence_ mocks all those that died here!" Orobus shouted. The rainbows in her hair glowed brightly, and the colors changed and mixed a violent pace, spreading out behind her head like the corona of an eclipse.

"I will cleanse the taint your cowardice has brought on Tripura!" Orobus cried, raising her arm to smite the Upani.

"Orobus, stop!" cried, Tacua seizing her arm. She turned and snarled at him. He shrank back, but didn't let go.

"Release me!" she commanded.

"No. I'm not going to let you kill him."

"Why? He is a coward! He must be scoured out of the Sura bloodlines!"

"NO, Orobus. You can't go around executing anyone you're angry at." Tacua said shakily. "Especially now. Whatever the truth is, be there a God or no, we just lost a sizable chunk of our forces. It was hard enough before to gather Sura to our cause, since we had to gather from all the clans to disguise our recruitment. It will be even harder after this disaster. We're on a deadline, remember?" Tacua gestured at the Upani. "Right now, we need him. We can't afford to lose _any_ more warriors. We need every single one we can get."

"He fled instead of fighting." Orobus said. "He should–!"

"Orobus." Tacua said cutting her off. "What did you tell me just a few minutes ago? About not letting you emotions run wild?"

Orobus glared at him, orange eyes so full of rage that Tacua thought for a moment that he had gone too far. Then she took a deep breath, and the rainbows sunk back into her hair, and the ground stopped shaking. When Orobus opened her eyes again, she was as calm and collected as ever.

"You are correct, Tacua." she said. "We cannot afford to waste valuable resources."

"No, we can't." Tacua agreed, scrambling back up onto his crenellation. "I'm glad that you've come to your senses."

"I'll bet you are." She cast an indifferent glace at the Upani. "I wish to be alone right now. Can you deal with this?" she asked.

"Of course. My pleasure." Tacua assured her. Orobus nodded and leapt into the air, head into the city. Tacua sagged, and took several deep breaths.

"Hey, you." he said.

'What is it, Tacua-nim?' the Upani asked, uncoiling cautiously.

"If you ever grow up to be a Nastika –."

'That's impossible, Tacua-nim.'

"– then you should still never, ever do what I just did. I warn you right now, you find yourself in the deep end again, and you'll be on your own."

'I understand, Tacua-nim.' the Upani said, bowing.

"Good. Then get out of here. I don't want anything to set her off until our mission here is successful." Tacua said. The Upani bowed again and slithered off.

"And don't mention anything about Gods to anyone else!" he shouted after it. Tacua stood up and looked into the city, towards where Orobus had gone. He needed to avoid her more. She made him nervous, which made his Vigor recover more slowly, which made it harder to maintain his interference. It was perfectly logical. He really wasn't afraid of her. Tacua shuddered, remembering her fury.

Only a little nervous, that was all.

*******I*******

Orobus stared at Naja's tower, trying to cool off. It wasn't going very well.

How could that creature have just turn and run? The Gods weren't as dangerous as everyone made them out to be; only the eight 5-Zen Gods were of any note. The only reason she wasn't spitting in their faces instead fighting them head on, as she'd done against Indra years ago before she'd joined up with Tacua, was because such a commotion would undoubtedly draw Ananta or Vasuki and Manasvin, his right and left hands. Those three were the only ones with the power and motivation to stop her.

Orobus's mood darkened further at the thought of her so-called king. He was a coward, he and all the rest of the Sura Kings. They were the mightiest beings in the entire universe next to the Primeval Gods, but they had backed down like meek little rodents when ordered to, even after some of them had lost scores of Nastika and almost half their Rakshasas. None of them had a hundredth of the character Naja had.

Orobus sighed. She had to admit to herself, she wished Naja had been a little less brave and a little more cautious. She smiled sadly, remembering the last time she'd seen him.

*******I*******

"Naja, you shouldn't go." Orobus pleaded. Naja laughed and reached out to touch her hair, pulling his fingers through it so that the colorful strands flickered and danced.

"Come on, Orobus, if I didn't go, how could we be the Nine Guardians of Tripura? And my tower isn't positioned so Eight Guardians would be symmetrical. I can't condone such a thing." They were standing at the entrance of their cave in the Ananta Clan's territory.

"I'm serious!" she snapped. "Stop being such and idiot!" She grabbed his arm and looked into his golden eyes. "Naja, I have a bad feeling about all this. I'm scared for everyone else. I want you and the kids near me, where I can protect you."

"I'm being serious too." Naja said, brushing back a strand of electric blue hair. He hugged her. "Orobus, Tripura is the Sura's special city, given to us by Brahma-nim herself. Nothing but a power equal to a Primeval God's can destroy it, but its people aren't so lucky. They need us to protect them from the Gods and their worshippers." He pulled back and looked down at her. "If Murugan is seriously rousing his worshippers to battle, and Varuna and Chandra are supporting him, then that's three out of the nine 5-Zen Astika that are pushing to start a major conflict among the humans. And when war does break out, the first thing the God-worshippers are going to do will be to summon their Gods; Tripura and the other Sura cities will need us to protect them."

"Naja, the Gods haven't had the guts to launch a full scale attack against us since Yama took a desk job." Orobus argued. "If they're doing it now, it's because they think they'll be able to do enough damage to us for it to be worth getting smacked into hell for a million years. You're the least of the Nine Guardians, you'll be one of their biggest targets if you defend the city."

"I'll have the boys to help me."

"And as Rakshasas they'll be even bigger targets! Them, _and_ the girls!" she cried. Naja's face softened. He placed a hand on Orobus's cheek.

"I'll talk to the girls again, I promise." he said quietly. "But I can no more make the boys to abandon the city than you can make me. I chose to be a Guardian; I knew going in what responsibility that choice would burden me with, and so did you. The humans depend on me to protect them, and it is my duty to give that protection, no matter what." He gave her a lopsided grin. "Even if, as _unlikely_ as it is to happen, it costs me my life."

"Naja –."

"Orobus, even if we were with you, you wouldn't be able protect us. If something is afoot, it's more likely that the Gods will go after the strongest Sura instead of the weakest, to defeat the greatest threats they can. You are Ananta's shield; it is as much your duty to protect him as it is mine to guard Tripura. And that duty has to be placed above protecting your family." Naja told her.

Suddenly she couldn't speak anymore; Orobus just grabbed him and hugged him tight. Her own indestructibility made everything and everyone seem ten times as fragile. She spent every day Naja and her children weren't in the Sura Realm terrified that they would somehow vanish from her side forever.

"Orobus, I'll be fine." Naja said, prying her arms away. "This'll all be over soon, and I'll be back before you know it." He gave her a wicked grin. "I think I know how to make it up to you for all the worry I'm causing. If any of the kids die, we'll need to replace them, right?" Orobus blushed, even the colors in her hair taking on a reddish hue. Naja laughed.

"The humans worship us, Orobus; they bear our children and give us their unwavering loyalty, even though the Gods will send them to Hell after they die. I owe them this." he said. He kissed her good-bye, and walked away, waving back at her the whole time.

*******I*******

A tear trickled down Orobus's cheek. After all this time, the pain should have eased. At the very least, her heart should have fortified itself against it. But every day over the centuries since the War of Dust, every day she lived in a universe without Naja in it, the pain grew worse.

Orobus drew and deep, shaky breath, and wiped at her eyes. She would destroy all humans, wherever they crawled through the muck in this wretched Realm of theirs. She would do it for Naja. She would do it for her sons and daughters. She would do it for the other eight Guardians of Tripura, for all the other mothers, father, husbands and wives in every clan who had lost their families. She would do it for every Sura who had died to protect the false, treacherous, worthless humans. She would do it for those humans who had been loyal, and died because of it.

She owed them this.


	14. 14 Death

**I'm really, really, sorry for how late this chapter is. There are several reason for it, among them many distractions, lack of inspiration  
(the muse packed up and left for a while. Pure stubbornness is what got me this far), and the chapter ultimately becoming twice as long as I intended.  
**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoy, as always.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kubera**

Chapter 14: Death

Despite his attempts to split from the group of humans, Yama was sucked along with them as they entered the city. Fortunately, the district that housed most of Thanciel's population, where they were dropping off the refugees, was just along the Entry Road. As soon as they stopped to organize the refugees' absorption into Thanciel's population, Yama broke away and sprinted off as fast and as stealthily as he could.

He rubbed his cheek. Insight would be the only way to tell what that woman was thinking, and there was no way he was going there. He was making his way past the Sky Temple when someone grabbed his shoulder.

"Friend!" said a familiar cheerful voice. "Imagine our paths crossing once again!" Yama turned and scowled at Tetho. The blue-haired man smiled care freely.

"Hello, Mr. Tetho." Yama said, shaking his shoulder free. "Unfortunately, I don't require any more information, so I don't have need for your services. Good-bye."

"I heard, you where a hermit, but alas! How little you understand!" Tetho said, following Yama. "The payment you gave me, friend Cheonjae, was lucrative far above and beyond my usual profits. Waiting until you need something, anything, for an entire year would still be more profitable that serving a thousand thousand other customers. So until you have need for Tetho's humble and modest services again, Tetho shall follow you, circling like a vulture with the eyes of an eagle and the olfactory senses of a bloodhound."

"What I _need_ is for you to go away." Yama snapped, walking faster.

"Ah, but who would protect you from Thanciel's women? I'm sure the Priestess would be upset if someone else played with her man-toy."

"Okay," Yama said, spinning around, "first off, I am no one's man-toy. Second, why would I need protection form _women_?"

"You are a powerful magician; you are, if I may make a modest compliment, quite handsome, and you are filthy rich. What woman wouldn't throw herself at you?"

"I can think of several," Yama said, "and no one except Chaya, some magicians, and the refugees even know I exist. And maybe you. If they did somehow find out about me, they'd learn I was a hermit, so why would they think I was filthy rich?" Tetho did not meet his gaze. He gave his undivided attention to the examination of the crack in a paving stone, and whistled. Yama sighed and covered his face with one hand.

"How and why?" he asked.

"Tetho has his networks of contacts and information; and it is professional courtesy to pass information both ways. Information becomes news, news becomes gossip, and gossip spreads. It took approximately twenty minutes of you arriving back here for hearsay to say that you single handedly annihilated every Sura on Belrin." Tetho said.

"Gaah. Whatever. How bad could it get? It's not like they know my fa…" Yama trailed off as his gaze followed Tetho finger, pointing to an enormous sign at the top of the commercial district, with his and Athol's faces plastered all over it.

"The Priestess is remarkable industrious when it comes to propaganda." Tetho said.

"WHAT THE _HELL_?!" Yama screamed. "Is that bitch _trying_ to piss me off bad enough to kill her?" He swung back around to Tetho.

"I could leave. I could leave at any time." Yama said. "I know that she doesn't have the resources to come after me. Even she did, and even if Visnu manipulated fate to torment me and she actually _found_ me, she should have realized that I could squash anything she can throw at me! So why is she doing this, when she has to know it'll piss me off?!"

"It's _because_ it will piss you off, friend." Tetho said. "You react so magnificently. Haven't you ever known someone who will do things they know will anger you, just so that they might see your reaction?"

"No. The only two people who consistently angered me did so because they were a bum and an idiot, respectively." Yama said. He glanced back at the sign. "I'll go give her the satisfaction of seeing me upset, and then get her to take it down."

"I doubt that will work, friend Cheonjae." Tetho said as Yama walked past. "That sign will bring in a lot of money to the Death Temple. Since you work directly for the Death Priestess and you are a Triple Yama with incredible skill at Death magic, many will believe that Yama-nim's hand guides you. Many young women will make offerings at the Temple in hopes that Yama-nim will lead you to favor them." Yama stared at the man, his mouth working soundlessly for a few minutes.

"But—That—That's completely—How—I don't—It doesn't—I don't even—." Tetho placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Just let it go and accept it. I think you'll hurt something if you keep trying to make it make sense." Yama just shook his head.

"You humans make no sense at all." he muttered under his breath.

"Kyaa! Its Cheonjae-nim!" That shrill cry was all the warning Yama got before he was swarmed on all sides by females. They giggled in high-pitched voices and put their hands all over him. He tried shoving them away, but it just made them more determined. He briefly considered and dismissed killing them all. While it would put an end to all such assaults on his person and would certainly drive his point home with Chaya, he didn't want to think about the message it would send if Brahma received a bunch of forms with "Killed by God Yama out of irritation" listed as cause of death. He frantically looked for Tetho.

"Hey, you!" he shouted.

"Yes, friend?"

"You said you were going to protect me from these females, right? Get me out of here and I'll give you as much gold as you want!" Tetho tossed something at the ground. The air was suddenly filled with smoke, and the females back away, confused and coughing. Yama felt someone grab his arm, and Tetho pulled him free of the smoke, running into the passages of the commercial district. They headed towards the western part of the city, weaving through the crowds. Eventually they broke back out onto the open streets. A building that rivaled the Temples for size dominated the skyline here, though it looked a lot more like a fortress than a place of worship and governing. Blue-white stone created three sets of walls and a solid block-like central building that looked like someone had carved them from a glacier.

Yama looked at the King's Palace of Thanciel, and travelled back thousands of years for a moment, back when it was Thanciel's military command center during the War of Dust. He had been too busy fighting and generally feeling resentful of being dragged away from his duties to pay attention to much, but Yama remembered the Palace. All of Belrin's Priests and Priestesses had gathered here behind its walls, which had been the strongest defenses in existence before Brahma created the Barriers, to summon the Gods to take part in the assault on the Sura city of Tripura. Yama shuddered, the memories leaving a bad taste in his mouth. Tetho yanked hard on his arm, dragging him back to the present.

"This way, friend." he said. He pulled Yama towards a building with a newly painted sign that said "Magician's Guild." They went around back, and entered building that seemed unusually clean. They ran through long, identical halls with doors lining them. It felt…homely. Something about it seemed to call to Yama. Tetho came to a stop in front of door with a "Director" sign on it.

"Wait out here." Tetho said. "I'll get you permission to hide here for a while. They won't look around here." He pushed open the door and left Yama outside with the potted plants at a nearby intersection.

Yama tapped his foot impatiently; what was taking him? Rules had to be followed, but surely they could be followed faster. Yama twitched, suddenly hearing female voices. Yes, they were definitely coming closer. Yama looked around frantically, trying to find a place to hide. He tried to open the door quietly, but it was definitely locked. He glared at it, and tried to remind himself that a hiding place that he had to break into would do him no good as a hiding place after. As footsteps came closer, he ran to the nearest door down the hall. Finding it unlocked, he dived in and locked it behind him.

Yama put his ear against the door, listening. The voices and footsteps tramped past the door and eventually out of earshot. Yama sighed in relief.

"I must say, I've never actually seen a man who was genuinely running away from a group of women chasing him before. One that wasn't an angry mob, that is." Yama jumped, and turned to find the room wasn't unoccupied.

A bed took up most of the square room, with the rest of it taken up by a mess of complex machinery. The machinery was hooked up, via various tubes and cords, to the woman lying on the bed. She had long brown hair and dark eyes that studied him with amusement. Her lips formed a slight grin.

Yama stared at her. He could sense from her strongly the feeling that made this place feel good to him. He hadn't recognized it immediately because he could count on one hand how many times he'd come into close contact with humans before the past few days. It was the presence of his jurisdiction.

This woman was dying.

Not right in front of him, but slowly and surely. She wasn't going to last much longer.

"I'm sorry for disturbing you," he apologized. "I'll leave right away." He turned to open the door.

"No!" she said. "No, stay. Ever since I got move to the critical section, no one except my friends and my doctors visit me, and they can get boring after a while." Yama hesitated. "No one's going to search the room of a critically ill patient." she pointed out. "You'll be safe from your rabid fans with me." Yama sighed and pulled up a chair next to the bed.

"I'm Mayna." the woman said, "What's your name, Mr. Popular?"

"Cheonjae." Yama said grudgingly. He doubted a bedridden woman would have heard of him—.

"Oh, _you're_ Mr. Cheonjae? The master Death magician?" she asked. Yama groaned and placed his head in his hands. Mayna laughed.

"Don't worry, Mr. Popular, I promise I won't leap out of bed and try to jump your bones." she teased.

"Thank you." Yama said dryly. "How did you learn about me? I wouldn't think the critically ill would have a good gossip network."

"Oh, Chaya's told me all about you." she said. Yama blinked.

"You know Chaya?" he asked.

"Yes. Chaya, Kerid – that's our King – and I have been friends since we could walk. They're much busier these days, but they visit to keep me from dying of boredom before I die of illness." She started coughing, as if to emphasis her last statement. Yama waited a few minutes until she stopped, not moving. She wouldn't die today.

"Since you're here, Mr. Cheonjae, will you tell me how the evacuation went? Chaya hasn't been by to tell me, and you were actually there, anyway."

"I'd rather not talk about it." Yama said.

"Oh. Was it bad?"

"No, there was only one casualty. But some stuff happened afterwards that I don't want to discuss." Mayna's eyes brightened, like a hound that had a scent. She picked up some sort of button trigger.

"You know, it would be a shame if my hand slipped and accidentally summoned security." she said, studying the trigger. "The commotion might just attract anyone else who happened to be wandering through the hospital." Yama glared at her, but started telling the story.

"…and then she kissed me on the cheek." he said wrapping up the story, rubbing his cheek. "I decided then it was high time to get the hell away from her before I got caught up in anything else. That's when I found out she'd made me into some sort of sex symbol. With the help of this guy who had helped my out earlier, I was able to evade the females chasing me, for the most part. That led me to trying to hide here, and that's how I ended up in your room." Mayna was laughing so hard that Yama would have been worried about her if he'd been anyone but the God of Death. He would have been angry, but Mayna made him feel relaxed for some reason. He suspected the presence of his jurisdiction was the cause, the comfortable feeling he got from it extended to Mayna.

"You poor, poor, man." Mayna said when she had her breath back. "It seems the evil witch Chaya has claimed yet another victim. Oh, I haven't laughed that hard in years." She suddenly sobered, and studied Yama, as if trying to make up her mind on something about him.

"Mr. Cheonjae…thank you very much for keeping me company. Could I ask you to do me one more favor?"

"That depends on the favor, I guess." Yama said cautiously.

"Would you tell me how long I have left to live?" She asked. Yama blinked, and cocked his head, considering.

"Why would you want to know that? Humans normally fear death. I would think you would want to avoid think about yours." he asked.

"I know I'm dying. This illness is in my blood, it has been with me since I was born. Its actually kind of miraculous that I've lived so far into adulthood." she said. "I've long since accepted my fate. That's harder to do for some. My husband left a few years ago, searching for a cure on other planets. He's supposed to back, success or not, very soon, but…" She shook her head. "I want to know if I'll still be here when he gets back. It's a weight on my mind whether my husband or Yama-nim comes to me first. But Chaya refuses to tell me. She thinks she's protecting me somehow. But you're a Triple Death attribute magician as well, right Mr. Cheonjae? You can tell how long I have, too."

"Well, I don't really know you, and if Chaya doesn't want you to know –."

"_Please_, Mr. Cheonjae." she begged. Yama sighed.

"No longer than the end of the month. That's as much as I'll say." he said. Mayna smiled.

"Thank –." she began, and then the doorknob started rattling. The door burst in, revealing an agitated Chaya.

"Mayna, are you all right? Why was the door locked?" she said, walking in over the shattered door. Then she spotted Yama.

"_YOU!_ What are you doing here?!" she said, reaching over to grab Yama's shirt, pulling him over the bed. "Don't know better than to disturb sick people? How dare you bother someone with such poor health?!"

"Chaya!" Mayna admonished. "Put him down right now! He wasn't bothering me, and it's your fault he's here in the first place." Chaya stared at her blankly.

"My fault? How?" she said.

"Mr. Cheonjae has been telling me about how you've decided to exploit him as an advertising gold mine for the Temple." Mayna said, disapproval leaking from every pore. "And from what his story seems to indicate, he hasn't even been back in the city for two hours. He was hiding here from his newly acquired and unwanted groupies. Therefore? Your. Fault."

"Erm. Oh. Yeah. That." Chaya said, releasing Yama. She at least had the decency to look embarrassed, though Yama doubted that he would have gotten that much if they weren't in front of Mayna. He was going to have to do some serious self-evaluation later to figure out why this woman was still alive.

Chaya scratched her head and avoided looking directly at Yama. "Sorry about those Cheonjae. I didn't think that they would do much harm, and I didn't think the results would be this…immediate." Yama just glared at her. "You should try being less attractive, I guess." Yama just glared at her.

"_Mr. Cheonjae_." Mayna said. Yama looked a t her, and she gave him a look. Their eyes met.

_Accept the apology, you stubborn man._ his Insight read. Yama grumbled under his breath, and grudgingly said, "Apology accepted."

"And so, with the unintended consequences now apparent, you're going to take all of that advertising down, aren't you, Chaya?" Mayna said, turning to her friend.

"What? I wasn't –."

"_Aren't you_, Chaya?"

"—going to allow those terrible things to remain up for another moment! Don't worry; I won't let them bother you any further, Cheonjae."

"Good." Mayna said. She yawned widely. Chaya started fussing over her.

"Are you all right, Mayna?" she asked. "You aren't usually this tired around this time."

"I'm fine, Chaya. Relatively speaking. I think Mr. Cheonjae's entertaining storytelling must have taken more out of me than I thought." Mayna said tiredly.

"Then we'll leave you for now." Chaya said. "I'll come visit you tomorrow."

"Be sure to bring Mr. Cheonjae with you. He's so much fun…" Mayna said, her voice trailing off into sleep as they left. As soon as the door closed, Chaya whirled on him.

"Did you do anything weird to her?" she demanded.

"No. She seems like a nice girl. I expect _all_ of those advertisements to be taken down by tomorrow morning. I don't want to wake up to my face staring at me from the sky." Yama said, walking past her. He frowned. "Where did that fool go this time?"

"Which fool?" Chaya asked.

"That blue hair fool, Tetho. I didn't think about it at the time, but I was in there for quite a while, and he never showed up again."

"Ah. So Tetho was here with you, then?" Chaya said. Her voice indicated that certain words would be said the next time the Priestess laid eyes on the peculiar man. "Don't worry about him, he's everywhere. He probably knew where you were and decided that you were fine there." Her voice further indicated certain actions would be taken along with the certain words being said.

"He really does know everyone and everything, doesn't he?" Yama said. "Who is he really?"

"No one important." Chaya said. "Just a busybody. Don't lose any sleep over him."


	15. Extra Weight

**Despite illness and a shitty internet connection, I am relieved to be able to deliver to all of you the promised extra chapter before we go into May, if only barely. This tells the story of how Ananta and Orobus cut ties after the War of Dust ended.  
**

**To update you on the status of Chapter 15, I do finally have my computer back as of a few days ago. However, upon reviewing what I had written, I found that I hated it. So as I roll into the much prophesied exam time, I intend to use what time I can spare from studying to develop my plot line in a way that satisfies both you and me. Sorry for the further delay.**

**Once Chapter 15 is done, I'll just replace the "Notice" with it.  
**

**Anyways, please enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kubera**

Chapter Extra: Weight

"How many have we lost?" Ananta asked. He sat on a peak that one could see the entire Ananta clan territory from. Ananta never thought he'd know a day where the bleakness of the Sura Realm was more aesthetically appealing than where he'd come from.

"I don't know." came the tired reply. Two men stood in front of Ananta: one wore black pants and coat with a dark grey shirt, and had red eyes and hair with odd lines running down his face; the other wore a white and purple jacket and purple trousers, with a purple mask that covered his face except for his right eye all the way to his long grey hair.

"There hasn't been time for a head count," the red haired one continued, "and we don't even know if the whole clan has made it back yet. More have been popping up in small groups or individually over the past couple hours."

"Ballpark it, Vasuki." Ananta said, resting his face on his hands.

"A third." Vasuki said bluntly. "In total, over Nastika, Rakshasa, Upani, and Mara, I'd guess about a third of the Ananta clan is dead."

"A third." Ananta whispered. "A third of my clan is gone." He clenched his knees until it hurt, trying to calm the fury in his veins. The Primeval Gods had decreed an end to the war, which Ananta a heard some already calling the War of Dust, and had punished the Gods severely for instigating hostilities. Attacking the Gods would just have the same result, only the Primeval Gods would bring their judgment crashing down on the Sura instead. No matter how much Ananta wished to smash the entire God Realm to powder, his clan couldn't afford him to give in to his rage.

"Where is Orobus?" he asked through gritted teeth. "I wanted all three of you here."

"I don't think it would be a good idea to bother Orobus right now, my king." Manasvin said, his single open blue eye staring at the ground from behind his mask.

"Why? What problems could she possibly have that are more important than the future of our clan?" Ananta demanded to know.

"Er, Ananta, you did hear about what happened on Belrin?" Vasuki said, scratching his head self-consciously. "About Tripura?"

"Tripura…" Ananta murmured. He couldn't recall what the city had to do with Orobus. Then it hit him.

"Naja?" he asked, head snapping up. "Her children? Did something happen to them?"

"They're dead, my king." Manasvin said.

"All of them?"

"Not a single Sura who was in Tripura when the Gods attacked survived." Vasuki said. "Barely any humans did, for that matter, even the ones on their own side."

"Fucking hell. Poor Orobus…" Ananta sighed. "All right, we'll leave her to mourn for now." Looking down at the confused mass that was the remains of his clan, he said, "I doubt anybody is going to be doing much else besides that, anyway."

*******I*******

Ananta walked up to his peak, tired. After months of searching and slow trickles of refugees, they were finally certain that they had every surviving member of the Ananta clan on hand.

The headcount Vasuki and Manasvin had given him was daunting. A tenth of the Ananta Clan's Nastika, two-fifths of its Rakshasa, a third of its Upani, and nearly three-quarters of its Mara where gone. Almost 40 percent of the clan had been lost. The majority of deaths among the lower levels were collateral damage, killed along with the planets they were on during battle.

Rage and melancholy battled inside him as he reached the top, emotions that he, as king, couldn't indulge in. Ananta lay down, resting his head on his favorite rock, and stared at the floating hunks of rock. He felt so, so alone. The number of people in the universe who could understand the sheer magnitude of what it meant to be a king could be counted off from his fingers, and the majority of those people were his enemies. Airavata had her own problems; Vritra didn't talk to anyone who wasn't Kinnara, Taksaka, or a Primeval God anymore; and the thought of trying to have a heart-to-heart chat with Asura frankly terrified the strongest of Sura. Not to mention his clan would likely be in yet _another_ breeding frenzy after the war, and Ananta didn't want to be _anywhere_ near that.

Ananta put an arm over his eyes, tired of watching the rocks. He wished there was someone he could talk to, someone he could share his life with…

"Ananta." Her voice cut through his melancholy like a ray of sunshine. Ananta moved his arm, and their stood Orobus. She looked exhausted, and the colors in her hair bled sluggishly from color to color. Ananta thought she had never looked more beautiful.

"Orobus." Ananta said, getting up. He smiled for the first time in what felt like millennia, and walked towards her, arms outstretched. "I've been wondering where you. We've all been worried about –."

"When do we attack?" she asked. Ananta stopped walking, and lowered his arms.

"I sorry?" he asked, puzzled.

"The Gods." She said. "When to we strike back against them?" Anata stared at her.

"Orobus," he said carefully, "we aren't. We're not attacking the Gods."

"What?!" she cried, as if he had said something truly surprising instead of what any sane person would have said.

"Orobus, I know you've been away for a while, but have you _seen_ the condition the clan is in?"

"How can you just allow them to go unpunished after what they did?" she asked, clearly not listening to him.

"Orobus! The Primeval Gods passed their judgment; the Gods already have been punished!" Ananta argued. "On top of that, and I'll say it again, the clan has been devastated! We couldn't fight a war if we wanted too!"

"Then you're a coward!" Orobus screamed. "How can you obey those, those tyrants when they let those bastards walk off with a slap on the wrist and a warning after they slaughtered so many of our kin?"

"I hardly think their punishment would qualify as a wrist slap and a warning." Ananta said.

"Then you're a fool in addition to being a coward!" Orobus cried, stepping forward to look her king dead in the eye. Ananta could see the madness blazing behind her orange eyes. "They killed our brothers and sisters! They killed my husband, and children! Entire worlds, entire civilizations are dead because of Muurgan's fucking ambition, and _every single damned one of them_ went along with it. All of they should be annihilated from the universe, forever! _All of them!_"

"No, Orobus!" Ananta roared. He brought his hand down in a slashing motion to emphasize the finality of his statement "We are NOT attacking the Gods!"

Orobus tackled him with a shriek of unbridled fury. They hit the ground with her hands wrapped around his throat.

"How can you call yourself a king when you care so little for your own clan?!" she cried. That accusation caused Ananta's temper, stretched to its limit by repressed emotion and exhaustion, to snap violently. He punched Orobus in the face hard enough to send her shooting miles into the air. Ananta stood and dusted himself off as he waited for her to come back down. He'd felt something give beneath his fist, but that was fine. To hold back against Orobus was an exercise in utter pointlessness.

Orobus came crashing to the ground like a rainbow meteor, her landing throwing up a huge cloud of dust.

"Orobus." Ananta said, voice cold. "Your grief is compromising your judgment. You need to calm down–." Orobus hurtled out of the dust cloud, rainbows ablaze, and smashed her fist into his nose. The force of the blow made even Ananta stagger. Orobus kneed him in the stomach, and Ananta dropped to his knees, coughing and wheezing. Orobus locked her fingers together and brought a two handed blow down on Ananta's head. Or she tried to. Ananta raised a hand and caught the attack, grasping Orobus's hands tightly.

"Enough." he snarled. Rising, Ananta twisted and hurled Orobus into a nearby mountain. She struck it so hard that the edifice of stone exploded as Orobus passed through it and came out the other side. Ananta leapt into the air, coming down next to Orobus's body, which lay bloody and broken on the ground.

"I left you alone all this time because I respected your need to mourn, and to heal." Ananta said over the sound of bone and cartilage cracking and resetting. "If this is how you're going to act as a result, then I clearly should have hunted you down and forced you to do something constructive. Well, that's what you'll be doing from now on. You'll be so busy that you won't have time to brood on this 'revenge' insanity."

Orobus twisted her head to look at him, raw murder in her eyes. Streamers of glowing light began gathering around her body.

"No." Ananta said, eyes narrowing. "Orobus. Don't." Orobus shoved herself up off the ground, her spine realigning itself as she rose.

"Orobus. _Stop_." Ananta said, pointing a commanding finger at her. Orobus stood up; her body still covered in blood but whole once more.

"Orobus, please," Ananta said, resorting to begging, "don't do this…" Orobus's body began to blur, and as she grew indistinct, she start to swell and grow. Ananta shut his eyes and grimaced, a part of him hoping that if he just didn't look at it, the problem would just resolve itself. But he was Ananta, King of the Ananta Clan and one of the firstborn creatures of the universe. He knew better.

He knew what he had to do. But that didn't make it any less painful. Ananta took a deep breath and opened his eyes.

"Orobus." Ananta said. "If you take Sura form, I will kill you." Those four words seemed to echo across the breadth of the entire Sura Realm. Orobus's form stopped glowing, and resumed its usual size. The anger was gone from her eyes, replaced by shock.

"What did you say?" she whispered. Ananta somehow manage to keep his face a mask of immovability.

"I will _not_ allow you to plunge my clan back into war, Orobus. You will stand down, or…"

Ananta couldn't choke the words out. It had been hard enough to say them the first time. Orobus, Vasuki, Ananta, and Manasvin had fought together since the beginning of the universe. Vasuki was his right hand, Manasvin his left, and Orobus had been his indestructible shield, protecting the life of the Sura that the Ananta's enemies wanted dead more than any other. The four of them had battled the Gods, fought of the Garudas' predations, and maintained order within the clan. Orobus was one of his best friends, and more than once Ananta had considered grinding Naja up into a pile of meat and taking her as his own wife.

But he was the King.

"…Or I will kill you." he told his best friend. "You know that I actually can." Further shock, then hurt and betrayal, and finally rage once more flashed through Orobus's eyes.

"Hey, hey, what's going on here?!" Vasuki said, popping up in between them with a puff of flame. He looked back and forth between Orobus and Ananta, concerned.

"Why are you guys fighting?" he asked. Orobus glanced at him before turning back to Ananta.

"I obey your will, _my king_." she said, spitting out the title like it was the foulest curse she could imagine. "But find yourself a new shield. I won't waste my body protecting a king as worthless as you." Her words cut Ananta to the core of his soul. He barely even registered it when Orobus left. Vasuki walked over to him and shook him.

"Oy, Ananta! You in there? What the hell happened?" Ananta didn't hear him. He remembered something Visnu had taught him, long ago.

_When you laugh, it must not be true laughter; when you cry, it must not be true tears. Thus is the way of a king…_

For all his long life, Ananta had strived to live by this ideal, to be the best king he could possibly be. He had never once wavered from the path that was best for the clan. But for once, he couldn't bring himself to care.

Ananta sat down and wept bitterly for the loss of one of his greatest friends and the only woman he'd ever cared about, the weight of kingship grinding down on his shoulders, while Vasuki stood baffled and helpless at his side.


	16. 15 Faith

**Hello, everyone! I'm finally back! Thank you all for your patience. Man, writing this was rough after being out of the groove for so long, but I struggled through. Hopefully the next chapter will be easier.  
**

**Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kubera**

Chapter 15: Faith

"I don't understand why you had to come." Chaya growled. She and Yama were walking back from visiting Mayna.

"She did say that she wanted you to bring me along yesterday, didn't she?" Yama said. "Mayna seemed to be delighted by my presence, and the feeling is mutual. I find her company far more pleasant than anyone else's that I've met since coming to this city." Chaya glared at him.

"She's married." She said, her voice carrying a hint of warning. Yama rolled his eyes.

"Not _that_ kind of pleasant. She's pretty enough, I suppose, but I've seen better." Certainly the Gods and the Nastika were the universe's prime specimens of physical beauty, and thanks to Surya, he'd had some of mankind's top female specimens described at him with irritatingly precise detail. "Really, it's that she's the only person I feel at ease around in this place. Athol is an idiot who grates on my psyche, Rodrick is an idiot who grates on my ears, Caile is pleasant enough except I never know what will set her off into a killing rampage, and you seem bound and determined to drive me to murder."

"I said I was sorry about the giant hovering sign. I just forgot about it." Chaya complained.

"How do you forget something like that? Especially after I specifically said I didn't want to see my face in the sky?" Yama demanded. Chaya refused to answer.

"Maybe it's because you're jealous that I'm stealing your remaining alone time with your friend?" Yama teased.

The sound of the slap echoed through the walls of the hospital. Chaya's face was white with utter fury.

"Never, _ever_, joke about Mayna dying! Don't even _speak_ about it in front of me!" she hissed under her breath. "You have _no_ idea what it's been like, watching her waste away over the years!" Yama frowned at her, rubbing his cheek.

"If you don't want to think about it, why did you become a Death magician, when the silent magic lets you sense her imminent death? Why did you become the Death _Priestess_ of all things?" Chaya looked hesitant, and avoided his gaze. She finally took a deep breath and opened her mouth to answer. Then the clock in the hospital went off, marking the hour. Chaya yelped and ran over to the clock.

"Shit, it's time already? Reaf is going to kill me if I'm late again!" She ran over to the window, smashed the glass with a kick, and leapt through.

"Where are you going?" Yama shouted after her.

"Temple service! We'll finish this conversation later!" Chaya shouted over her shoulder.

"Has that woman never heard of opening a window?" Yama grumbled. He ripped the locks off the window, and shoved it up and open. He jumped to the ground and started running after Chaya.

*******I*******

By the time they arrived at the Death Temple, what seemed like the whole city was filing through the doors.

"Ooooh shit. Coming through!" Chaya called, and the crowd parted for her, and Yama, who trailed behind her.

"Chaya, what is going on?" Yama asked.

"No time! Just go into the main shrine and take a seat, 'kay?" Chaya shouted over her shoulder. Yama watched her sprint up the stairs into the upper Temple, then threw up his arms and followed the river of humanity. He reached the large doors to the main shrine, which seemed to take up the majority of the ground floor of the Temple, a few minutes later.

There, for the second time that day, Yama found himself to be looking upon…himself. But this time, it wasn't "Cheonjae" he looked at.

An enormous statue of Yama, God of Death, gazed over the congregation, the blade of his scythe planted at his feet. The likeness was good enough that Yama glanced around nervously and started an in-depth examination of the floorboard's wood grain. When the hell had they managed to get his face taken down well enough to replicate it that degree? He sure as hell didn't pose for it, he was certain he would have killed anyone who would have suggested such a thing.

Shoving his way to the front, Yama managed to glare his way into getting a good seat. Then he remembered that he still had no idea what was going on. Seizing the man sitting next to him, he asked, "Hey. What's going on here?"

"What, don't you know?"

"Let's just say that my foreknowledge of your answer is irrelevant to whether or not you're going answer my question."

"Um, well, this is the weekly Temple service, in which the citizens of Thanciel come and give thanks to Yama-nim for his protection. Usually, the God the Priest or Priestess has summoned takes part of the ceremony, but since all the Gods seemed to be deaf to our summons, that part has been sort of taken out the past couple weeks." The man snorted. "Good riddance, I say. For enlightened beings that govern death, they usually seemed pretty useless at anything besides acting as barrier batteries. Really, you'd think Yama-nim would run a tighter ship."

"Yes, you would think so." Yama said with a tight smile. He released the man, and said, "Perhaps we should pray to Yama-nim to instill discipline in his staff." Because when he got back, there were going to be some pointed questions, and then something a lot worse than pink slips was going to be dealt out.

The murmuring that develops where ever there are large numbers of people died down as Chaya entered the room. She wore a long black dress instead of the fighter-like outfit she usually wore, and she was…quite pretty, really, Yama had to say.

Standing in front of the statue of himself, Chaya spread her arms and said, "Citizens of Thanciel, thank you for coming to our Temple, on this, the day of Yama, to honor our guardian God, Yama-nim…" Chaya started droning on about how death wasn't a bad thing and how Yama-nim would take care of them, and other things that Yama felt he was exempted from listening to on account of _being_ Yama.

Instead, he watched Chaya. And thought. Chaya clearly meant every word she was saying; her face lit up when ever she said "Yama-nim." But he couldn't fathom _how_ she could feel that way. Death was an absolute and necessary part of the functioning of the universe. Yet…it was a tragic thing, from the view of others. Despite millions of years of built up bias, Yama could admit that the other Gods didn't come to him _solely_ to make him miserable. Sura mourned the deaths of their mates, and sometimes their children. There had been times when others had tried to _kill_ him in order to delay the inevitable. Humans like Chaya should hate him, with their tiny life spans, not love him. How could she feel so strongly about death when her best friend had been marked for an even shorter life than normal?

Then service ended, and people started filing out. Yama remained where he was, studying the statue of himself. Eventually he heard footsteps behind him.

"Hey," Chaya said, having changed back into her normal outfit, "what are you still doing here? It so stuffy in here; I can barely stand it. Let's go up on the wall; there's usually a nice breeze up there." Yama nodded, and followed pensively.

*******I*******

Chaya kept glancing back at Cheonjae as they climbed the stairs to the top of the Temple wall. The magician was completely quiet, and just stared at her like he was trying to bore a hole into her skull. An odd feeling ran through her whenever their eyes met. This, coupled with the total lack of the usual complaints and scathing remarks, made the walk extremely uncomfortable. They reached the top, and Chaya leaned against the crenallations and sighed, the cool breeze blowing gently across her face. She had a pretty good idea about why Cheonjae was silent, and waited until he asked the question.

"Chaya," he said at last, "Why don't you hate Yama? He is taking your best friend from you, you hate thinking about death. Why are you his Priestess?"

Chaya sighed, thinking of where to begin. "Well, I guess it does lead back to Mayna." she said.

"I was pretty young when Mayna first showed signs of being sick. I don't think I'd turned ten yet. When they told us, me, Kerid, all of our parents, that she would never live to a normal age, I reacted just as you expected me to. I cursed Yama-nim, hated him for taking away one of the four dearest people in my life at the time, the others being Kerid and my parents. But I held out hope, really. That a cure could be found. I studied Resurrection magic, medicine, anything I could think of to heal her despite my Death attributes.

"After a while though, it became clear that there really was nothing to be done. So I got desperate. I made what, at the time, I considered a deal with the devil. I joined Yama-nim's priesthood, embracing my Triple Death attribute. I figured that, if I was part of his priesthood, or better yet, his Priestess, he would hear my prayers, even if he heard no others. That, if I begged his long enough and hard enough from a position from which he wound hear me, he would spare Mayna her shortened life."

"Every life is assigned a length for a reason." Cheonjae said.

"I know that now, from serving as Death Priestess, and from making friends with Tane, the Sky Priest." Chaya agreed. "I've come to realize that Yama-nim does not want to cut our lives short; he doesn't want to cause us sorrow. He cares for us, watches over us, and he only brings us death because that is his duty." Cheonjae shifted uncomfortably. Chaya glanced at him curiously, but continued. "After I realized that, I redoubled my efforts to rise in the priesthood and improve my skill as a magician. I became a Priest Candidate, and when Morghen-nim died a few years ago, I took his place. I wanted to guide Thanciel and protect her people, so nobody has to die. So Yama-nim doesn't have to take anyone away." She grimaced. "Though I've come to terms with it, I still _strongly_ dislike having Mayna's imminent death rubbed in my face, which is why I lashed out at you earlier."

She spun around and leaned backwards onto the edge of the wall, looking at Cheonjae. "And that's that, really. And so here we are." Cheonjae didn't meet her eyes; he looked out at Thanciel, studying the city at night.

"You're a good person, Chaya." Cheonjae said at last. "Far better than me. Far better than most people I've ever met. Yama should be proud to have such a person as his Priestess." He looked down at his hands and laughed softly.

"I was thrown out of my home because I lost my temper and attacked one of my co-workers. He was an annoying bastard, but I guess, looking back, he didn't deserve that kind of aggression. If it weren't for the intervention of one of my seniors, I would have hurt him very badly. And so I was sent here, to calm myself, distress, and generally get my shit together."

Chaya felt a stab of annoyance.

"Is that it?" she demanded. Cheonjae started, and looked at her, surprised.

"I bear all the wounds of my past to you, and you give me that incredibly vague bullcrap? How is that fair?!" Chaya pounded her fist on the wall. She would rather have pounded it on a certain magician's head.

"You're the strongest magician in Thanciel, probably the strongest magician on Belrin. Maybe even the strongest magician ever. You're the city's best hope for surviving. And I know _nothing_ about you. Not your motivations, not your origins, not even if you're officially a magician! All I know is that you're strong, that you do what you set out to do, and that you believe with absolute conviction that every living creature except Mayna is out to make your life a living hell." She swept an arm out, trying to convey all her frustration with the motion.

"Who _are_ you, Cheonjae Wei?"

Cheonjae stiffened, and for a moment Chaya thought she had gone too far. Then he slowly relaxed.

"You're right Chaya." he whispered. "It isn't fair. But if you knew who I really was, _what_ I really was, then…" He sighed. "…I think you'd be disappointed. So very disappointed."

He looked at her, his eyes pools of sadness; she could see the apology in them. Then he started to walk away.

Chaya was fuming, but she could tell that she was going to get anything more out of the mysterious magician. She walked after him, taking quick steps to catch up.

"All right," she said grudgingly, "I guess I can let you slide this once. On one condition." Cheonjae stopped walking, and eyed her warily.

"Okay." he said, "What?" Chaya grinned.

"_You_ have to give ice cream another chance." she said gleefully.

"What?!" Cheonjae spluttered. "You must be insane! There's no way I'm ever putting that poison in my mouth again!"

"Its ice cream or tragic backstory, Cheonjae. Take your pick." Chaya said, folding her arms. Cheonjae glared at her for several, silent minutes before muttering, "Fine. I'll try the damn ice cream." Chaya laughed all the way back down to the Temple.


	17. 16 Vengeance Begins

**This chapter is mostly stuff blowing up, but I still had fun writing it, because I could show some of how badass Orobus is. Plus it was nice and easy, so I was better able to ease back into the groove completely.**

**Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kubera**

Chapter 16: Vengeance Begins

Orobus stood, watching the city of Felorm as her armies gathered. This was the city where the humans were trying the hardest to reach the Gods. At Tacua's request, Orobus intended to put an end to their prayers.

Guttatus walked up to her and bowed.

'All of our troops are in place, Orobus-nim.' the Rakshasa said.

"Good. Begin the assault." she told him. She smiled; she could practically smell the blood on the wind. At last, her vengeance _truly_ began. Guttatus bowed again and left. Soon, Sura war cries rippled across the bowl-like valley Felorm sat at the bottom of.

The assault began with Guttatus, as the only Rakshasa present. He took Sura form, a red and orange snake with ring patterns. His jaws dropped open, and a tongue of yellow flame bloomed out, blazing towards the city. A dome of shimmering force surrounded the city, and the Transcendental washed harmlessly over it. The barrier stood firm and unwavering, despite it being powered by only humans. Orobus hissed in impatience. How dare the vermin be so stubborn!

"Give the order for a massed attack." she told a nearby Upani. "I want that barrier down!" It bowed and hurried off. Soon the valley was lit by Transcendentals; Light, Fire, Sky, Earth, and a few Destruction here and there. They hammered the barrier until it started to waver. Guttatus redoubled his attack, and the barrier groaned under the constant barrage, before finally breaking. Orobus howled with glee along with her army as the Sura charged to take down the second barrier.

The humans counterattacked.

Felrom was a city of Fire and Earth; the Sura had destroyed the Fire barrier. However, the humans must have placed magicians on standby upon the wall, to manually operate the turrets. When the Sura charged, the turrets fired despite the barrier having fallen. Streams of fire washed over the army, causing shrieks of pain to echo across the valley, matched only by Orobus's shrieks of fury. Then the Earth turrets went into operation, and waves of crushing force swept across the valley, smashing trees, hills, and Sura alike to smithereens. The charge turned into a rout, the Sura screaming and fleeing back to a safe distance. Orobus gnashed her teeth, but she took a hold of herself and calmed down. She turned to Guttatus to give the next order.

A plume of fire erupted from the other side of the valley. Orobus wheeled and stared at the distant fire.

_Impossible! That's well outside of turret range, how are they—?_ She thought, but she was interrupted by more fires erupting. Lightning and other attack magics ripped through the Sura army, throwing them into a panic.

"No, no, no!" Orobus cried. "I can't lose my army!"

"That's a shame, bitch, because not one of you is walking away from here." Orobus spun around to find a human standing behind her.

"Filth, I'll—!" she began, but more humans appeared with rushes of wind.

_Teleportation! _Orobus thought. _So that how they were attacking!_ The magicians reached out and declared as one, "Bhavati Agni!"

Orobus shrieked, her body dissolving into mist. The damaged pieces immediately began regenerating.

"We'll keep this up until you die. Bhavati Agni!" one of them said. "Even if you take Sura form we'll keep going!" Orobus's hand wrapped around his throat, and she hoisted him into the air.

"Fool! I can't be killed; I can regenerate faster than you can destroy me! I can regenerate faster than _anyone_ can destroy me!" As she spoke, the damage she was sustaining shrank more and more as the speed of regeneration overtook the expansion of the damage, until the only damage she took was puffs of steam caused by the spell being cast.

"Don't give up!" their leader yelled. "Not even a monster like this is invincible in human form – Arrrgh!" His screams were muffled by Guttatus's jaws, which reached over and chomped down over several of the magicians.

"Scum. I am invulnerable no matter what form I take. But I have no need to prove it filth like you. I only need to clean you from my shoes." Orobus said, crushing the throat of the magician she held. She waved her hand, and the ground began to suck at remaining magican's feet. They started to panic, trying to yank their legs from the hungry earth. One of the more intelligent and clear-headed ones teleported away, while the rest remained stuck. Perhaps they were just out of teleportation spells.

The earth quickly swallowed them, coming up to their waists, then their necks, and then they were only feebly writhing hands. Then they were gone.

"Guttatus, move the army back into position. Attack the city." Orobus ordered.

'Yes, Orobus-nim.' Guttatus said, bowing his great head. 'I will deal with the remaining magicians, and—."

"No." Orobus said. "Ignore them." Had the Rakshasa possessed eyelids, he would have blinked in confusion.

'I don't mean to question you, Orobus-nim, but the city turrets are still active, we can't focus on destroying them unless the magicians are dealt with!'

"Just rally the army." Orobus said. She didn't move her gaze from Felrom. "I'll deal with the barrier."

'Orobus-nim, is that wise?' Guttatus asked

"Do as I say!" Orobus yelled. Guttatus bowed and moved to do her bidding. Orobus turned her attention back to Felrom. For a moment, she wondered if she should have just done this to Thanciel. But no. She would strike at Thanciel only when she no longer had to hide from Ananta. Only when it was too late.

Orobus drew upon the currents of power that surrounded each and every planet in the human realm. The forces of gravity and magnetism, that pushed and pulled on everything on Belrin's surface. Orobus seized it, and gathered it into the skies above Felrom.

Then she slammed it down on the barrier.

The Planetary Hammer was a watered down version of her strongest Trancendental, only usable in Sura form, but it was strong enough to do the job. The barrier shrieked and cracked under the blow of raw force, and for a moment it actually held. But in the end, it was a barrier powered by humans against one of the strongest Nastika alive. The barrier buckled.

The wave of force crashed down, unhindered, on the defenseless city. Buildings and people were blown to smithereens, and the earth rippled with the shock. The walls of the city were blown over from the inside by sheer force of impact.

Orobus smiled. So ended the second greatest human city on Belrin.

'Move in and mop up.' she told Guttatus telepathically. The shrieks of the Sura army rose again, shrieks of joy as they fell on the ruins of Felrom. Orobus walked off, humming with satisfaction.

"_Are you out of your mind?!"_ Orobus looked up to see Tacua standing in a tree.

"What are you so upset about?" she asked calmly. "I've done as you asked and eliminated that city. The strain on your field of interference should be much reduced."

"This is not what I asked you to do!" Tacua cried. "I asked you to remove that city, yes, but I didn't want you to set off a damn beacon for Ananta to follow straight to us!"

"Were you able to block it?" Orobus asked.

"Do you even know how much power you used? If you had used any more, I'm sure even the Gods would have caught wind of our plan! I want the humans dead, Orobus, but I never signed on to commit suicide to do it! Pull this shit again, and I'm done with you!" Tacua shouted. Orobus raised a hand. Force yanked Tacua from the tree to her hand, where it wrapped around his throat. The Asura Nastika squirmed, his heart throbbing at the same beat as his humming sides. At every encounter between the two, he'd sought the high ground; the artificial difference in height had given him the confidence to speak with Orobus as an equal. But now, with her looming over him, orange eyes on fire, there was no mistaking which of the two Suras was the superior.

"Were. You. Able. To. Block. It?" Orobus asked, her voice low and soft.

"Somewhat." Tacua gasped out. He squalled when the hand around his throat tightened. "You used too much power! I couldn't block it all and hold the interference field over the planet at the same time! All I could do was disperse the signal. If someone is looking for us, they'll know our general direction, but they won't be able pinpoint Belrin in particular."

"We'll have to speed things up, then." Orobus said thoughtfully. She dropped Tacua, who gasped for breath. "Go eat, or whatever you want to do with your spare time. I need you to hold the field for a little longer." Orobus's gaze drifted in the direction of Thanciel. "The first blood was spilled tonight, my vengeance begun. But I am not finished. Not by far." She walked off, leaving a trembling Tacua rubbing his throat and staring after her.


	18. 17 Seeking

**Not much of immediate importance happens in this chapter, but it isn't totally irrelevant, I promise. You'll see later on.  
**

**Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kubera**

Chapter 17: Seeking

Ananta studied the ruins of the human city. If you defined "ruins" as a hole in the ground, at least. He could sense traces of Orobus's Transcendental still clinging to the area. That proved that she had been here, even if the testimony of the Anantas living on the planet hadn't already done so.

Of course, those testimonies also told him that she'd long since left. Now he had to figure out where she'd gone next. Leaping down into the crater, Ananta squatted down and scooped up a handful of dirt. He brought it up to his faced sniffed. Then he tasted it.

Ananta had honed his tracking skills until he could hunt his prey much like a mortal snake. His sense of taste would prove the most accurate when it came to finding Orobus. Flicking his tongue out, Ananta tasted the air. He got a sense of where the user of the transcendental had gone. Perhaps he should take a little longer, and try to pinpoint trail more exactly?

Ananta shook his head. He would not procrastinate, no matter how much he wanted too. He was not looking forward to confronting Orobus. The promise he had made her, all those centuries ago when the War of Dust had ended, rang in his ears. _Defy me and endanger the clan, and I will destroy you._ Not his exact words, but that was the meaning of what he'd said. Orobus struck at the humans instead of the Gods, but she still viciously toed the line of breaking his decree. Plus, Ananta wasn't sure that if he tried to stop her, she wouldn't finish their argument from long ago; taking Sura form to try and kill him. Ananta had no idea how he was going to deal with her.

That he wasn't looking forward to seeing her was an understatement. But he couldn't put it off; the longer he took finding her, the fewer options he would have in dealing with her.

Ananta's head snapped up. He felt the echo of the Transcendental he was tracking sounding across the Human Realm. Orobus had used a Transcendental, a powerful one. Ananta frantically tried to pinpoint her location.

"Damn it!" he snarled to himself, "Where the hell are you?" He tried to focus in on her as hard as he could, but something had scattered the signal. He wouldn't be able to find Orobus from here.

"Women. Always cause me problems." He muttered. "Never getting married. _Ever._" He took Sura form and began to fly through space, determined to bring his stubborn fourth to heel.

*******I*******

Something that had never happened since the dawn of the universe was about to occur. Many had thought it impossible to accomplish. Varuna had offered to come and freeze Hell over in commemoration of the event.

The office of the Death was about to be ahead of schedule.

Brahma signed and sealed the last form and set it on the pile, which she turned over to the minor death god that served as part of Yama's staff. He vanished, and few minutes later he reappeared in front of Brahma again, along with the rest of the staff. Even Agni was there, for once. Everyone was staring at the empty desk. Brahma clapped her hands to get their attention.

"Okay, everybody," she said, "I'd like to offer everyone congratulations on finally catching up on the backlog. We are now officially up to date!" There was a smattering of applause, as many of the present Gods were suffering from a deer-in-headlights reaction to the upending of their personal universal order.

"Further more, according to Yama," Brahma said, holding up the Death God's calendar, "no human is scheduled to die for at least another couple minutes. So everyone, this is my command." What she said next echoed throughout Hell, and those present would claim bragging rights for having personally heard the words of the Goddess of Creation that day until the end of time, though many would despair at the lack of the story's longevity at getting them laid.

"Everybody, take five!"

Agni immediately vanished to go take a nap, though he would find he couldn't sleep while he _wasn't_ supposed to be working. The lesser death Gods just generally milled about before vanishing one by one, having no idea what to do with themselves.

"Well, I'd best take advantage of this while it lasts." Braham said to herself. She created a pillow on the desk in front of her and collapsed down onto it, snoring instantly.

"Well, this is an unusual sight. I'd expected a welcoming committee, or at least a bouncer crew. Why are you here, Brahma, and what did you do with the rest of Hell?" Brahma sat up with a snort, and found a beautiful Goddess sitting on Yama's desk. She had long dark hair in a ponytail and pale turquoise eyes, and wore a rather risqué outfit that emphasized every aspect of her absolutely fantastic body, with a long black cape to complete the look. Every inch of her screamed Evil Goddess.

"Hello, Kali." Brahma said with a smile. "Its been a while since you last visited me. I've missed you." The Goddess of Chaos laughed and patted Brahma on the head. "Ah, dear Brahma, that's what I love about you. You're the only one who can say that and actually mean it."

"People might like you more if you didn't keep trying to screw with them every ten seconds." Brahma said. "What're you here for, Kali? You don't do social visits, especially not to someone like Yama."

"I came because I wanted to test out this." Kali said. She pulled out an enormous, pitch-black sword from under her cape. "This is the Sword of Re, a new God-level item I made. I'm going to use it to finally put that bastard Shiva in a hole, but I wanted to make sure it works as well as I wish it to. So I've used it to kill Gods that seem pretty similar to Shiva, and I'm pleased with the results. Marut went down like a sack of cement, but I wanted to test it on Yama first, since he's the closest thing to Shiva among the 5-Zen Gods.

"Well, good luck with that." Brahma said, making a mental note to find Visnu and make sure he was on this, "Unfortunately, Yama isn't here at the moment. I sent him on a mandatory vacation to the Human Realm about a millennia back."

"Really? Where to?" Kali asked. Brahma gave her a patient look.

"On a vacation to the _Human Realm_." Brahma repeated.

"Like I care about such things." Kali said with a roll of her eyes.

"Well, I do. Plus, if you kill him, you'll have undone whatever good having a vacation may have done him when he returns to life." Brahma replied.

"Fine, fine, I'll leave the God of Grumpiness be." Kali sighed. She smiled slyly. "Say, Brahma, since you're here, I have a favor to ask." Kali clenched her right hand. From under her skin emerged dozens of thin streams of red light, wriggling across her arm. The streams were made up of little symbols, tiny pictures, shapes that when stung together made a greater whole. Brahma narrowed her eyes.

"…I thought you gave all of those to your Chaos Clan." she said.

"Why would I do something as stupid as that? Even damaged, these Names have great power. Power I would like you help me access." Kali held out her Name-riddled hand to Brahma. "Brahma, help me change these Names. Help me break them down and rebuild them into something useful. What I want is to create a Name that surpasses all others!" Brahma looked into Kali's eyes, but she could read nothing of the plans of her fellow Primeval God.

"I'm going to have to say no, Kali. Names aren't something to be messed around with like that." Brahma said.

Kali shrugged. "Fine. But since I agreed not to hunt down the God of Grumpiness, keep this a secret, especially from Visnu and Shiva?" she asked.

"I promise. Now, the five minute break I gave everyone is almost up," Brahma said, as a single sheet of paper popped into existence on the desk, "So if you want to stay incognito, I think this will have to be good-bye."

"Ta, then. Come see me if you ever rethink doing that favor." Kali said, and then vanished.

"Don't do anything too ridiculous, Kali." Brahma sighed. Cupping her hands to her mouth, she called, "Everybody, back to work!"


	19. 18 Yama Ponders His Existence

**I had to help my family out with an estate sale the last couple weeks, so I didn't have time to make anything to long or too complex. Sorry. I seriously considered just adding this onto the next chapter**** and release it in another few weeks, but**** given how long my last break was, I decided to just release it instead of giving you guys nothing for four weeks.**

**Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kubera.**

Chapter 18: Yama Ponders His Existence

"I don't think I'm ready for this." Yama admitted.

"Cheonjae, it'll be fine. Relax." Chaya said.

"Maybe we're going through with this too quickly."

"Just trust me on this. Let me lead."

"I'm scared."

"I seriously can't believe you've never done this before. You're an attractive enough man."

"I've never really gotten out much! There was never a need!"

"Well, there is now, so just do as I say."

"No! I won't do it! I'm not going through with this!"

"Cheonjae, will you just take your damn clothes off already!" At this point the three tailors present broke down and started laughing uncontrollably.

"_Shut up!_" Yama snarled at them. Chaya sighed and rubbed her temples.

"Cheonjae, it's just a fitting for a suit. You're making this far more difficult than it needs to be." She said irritably.

"Why do I have to wear a stupid suit to this meeting, anyway? What's wrong with what I have?" Yama said defensively.

"What's wrong is that you've been wearing _only_ that for several days, and on top of that you don't wear casual clothing to a meeting of all the leaders of humanity on Belrin!" Chaya cried.

"Well, I don't intend to be dressed up like a doll, either!" Yama shouted back.

"Don't be ridiculous, you aren't going to look like a doll!"

"Liar! I saw those sketches you gave them before they could hide them!"

"If you don't want to look ridiculous, than help design you own outfit!" Chaya snapped.

"Gaaah! I can't take this anymore. I'm going out to get a breath of fresh air." Yama said, and stormed out. He walked over to a nearby window and leaned on it, rubbing his face. This was so damn irritating. It would be so much easier if he could just alter his outfit with magic! But that might reveal him to Chaya, and he wouldn't risk that.

Yama groaned as that thought entered his mind. He'd been hoping things would get easier, not harder, since no other Gods were on this planet. He should have been able to relax. But he could no more allow Chaya to discover his true identity than he could allow a fellow God to.

The reasons were multitude. It would remove any element of surprise, if the Sura were somehow preventing Gods from being summoned. They wouldn't expect a God to be on Belrin for any other reason. If she knew, then she probably would ask him to extend Mayna's life; despite what she'd said, Yama was sure that she'd ask if the actual God of Death was right in front of her. If they actually managed to break through and contact the Gods, then his fellows would be able to come bother him.

The final, biggest, and most irritating of all reason, was the one he'd given Chaya: he didn't want her to be disappointed in him. She'd built him up to be some sort of all-knowing, all-loving shepherd of souls, when he was really just a harried bureaucrat who wished everyone would just leave him the hell alone. She believed he was watching over each and every human alive with care and diligence, when really all he'd ever seen humans as were pieces of paper he needed to sort out and dispose of.

Thinking about the gap in what the humans expected him to be and what he actually was…was disturbing, to say the least. It made him feel like he was worse than Agni, in a way. He'd always prided himself on being the most responsible of the Gods. Now he wondered.

_Maybe…maybe, all along, I've been neglecting the most important part of my responsibilities?_ Yama thought. Resigning himself to being fussed over, Yama turned to walk back inside. For whatever reasons, Yama would not let himself be revealed to Chaya. The thought of utter disappointment on her face…Yama couldn't say why, but the idea was more than he could bear.

As he pulled the door open, Yama saw that there was a newcomer in the room, talking to Chaya. The man had long, tawny brown hair, and fur on his hands and forearms the same color, and had two, slit-pupiled, amber eyes. He wore faded indigo pants and nothing above the waist except for a robe of Yaksha fur across his shoulders, revealing a tanned stomach and chest that would make Agni look like he needed to work out. He immediately began glaring at Yama the moment he opened the door.

"So, this is the guy, huh?" the man said, stalking over to Yama. "So you're the one who's been hanging around Chaya, trying to seduce her, eh?!"

"What?" Yama said, taken aback. "No! I'm _far _from trying to seduce her. If anyone's been doing the seducing, it would be her. Who the hell are you, anyway?" The man blinked, equally surprised by Yama's outburst.

"Ah. So you're another one of Chaya's victims. My apologies."

"_What the hell?!"_ Chaya shouted, blushing fiercely and throwing her arms into the air. "Why to people keep saying that? Especially you and Mayna! I've only done something that could possibly make me look like a sexual predator to him once, and he's never seen me do it to anyone else. How would he even know about all that if you didn't keep bringing it up?! Stop spreading weird rumors about people, Kerid!"

"Right, right, I'm sorry." Kerid, King of Thanciel, said, waving his hands in a soothing gesture. Yama recognized the name from Chaya and Mayna mentioning him in passing. Kerid's face grew grim. "But enough fooling around. I have some grave news."

"It must be pretty bad for you to come yourself." Chaya said, her indignation replaced by concern.

"It is. Felrom is gone." Kerid told them. Chaya rocked back on her heels, eyes wide.

"What do you mean by 'gone?'" she demanded.

"I mean it's _gone_. As in completely destroyed, and all its citizens slaughtered. We only know of one magician who survived, and he claims that our supposed Nastika is very real and is responsible for breaking the barrier."

"Merciful Gods." Chaya whispered, her face growing white. Even Yama felt disturbed. Whoever this Nastika was, he hadn't believed them to be bold enough to take to the field themselves.

"The meeting has been move up. We're meeting in a few hours, instead of next week." Kerid said. Chaya cursed under her breath.

"As much as I'd like to complain about having no warning, I guess the situation excuses it. Cheonjae! Let's go." Chaya said, walking away with Kerid.

"Wait, what about my suit?" Yama said, falling in behind them. Chaya shook her head.

"No time. If they're all going to just show up, then they can deal with how you look." Chaya stopped, and turned to look at him. "That reminds me. I, Chaya Gerel, Priestess of Death, speak for myself and for Tane Flenar, Priest of Sky, and name you, Cheonjae Wei, the supreme commander of Thanciel's magical forces in this time of war." Yama's jaw dropped.

"But you barely know me! You can't just hand me that kind of power!" he protested. Chaya grinned.

"I know you well enough, Cheonjae. I've talked it over with Tane and the other magicians, and everyone except Sirles agreed that you should be entrusted with this position. Not only are you the strongest and most skilled magician we have available, but you've shown that you are willing to give your all for us, even if this isn't your home and we aren't your people." Chaya gripped his shoulder briefly. "I know that I can trust you with this kind of responsibility. I know you won't let me down." She turned back around and continued walking. Yama walked after them, saying so quietly that not even Kerid would hear, "I'm not so sure, anymore."


End file.
